The Courier's Story
by RealSayakaMaizono
Summary: An original take on the standard Fallout New Vegas adventure, starting at the beginning. I never finished this story. I haven't touched it in over 2 years, and I've left it that state with only minor editing for upload here. There's probably formatting and grammar issues everywhere. Leave a review if you want, but I won't return to make changes. I know how poor some parts are.
1. Prologue

**The Courier's Story**

 **Diary Of The Courier**

October 23, 2077... The Day of the Great War. The day the world went to hell.

After the world was busy fighting to control the few resources that remained, after China invaded Anchorage and after gas prices skyrocketed, the world couldn't take it any longer, and the Great War knows who fired first, and those who heard the sirens overhead believed it to be a false alarm, little did they know the planet was about to become a barren wasteland. The Vaults were shut, and in just two hours, the Great War caused indescribable damage to everything in existence. More energy was released in the first moments of the Great War than all of the previoushuman conflicts in the history of the world combined. Entire mountain ranges were created as the ground buckled and moved under the strain of the cataclysmic pressure produced by numerous, concentrated atomic explosions.

Rivers and oceans around the world were contaminated with the resulting radioactive fallout released by the nuclear weapons used by all sides, and the climate changed horrifically. All the regions of the earth suffered from a single, permanent season once the initial dust blasted into the atmosphere by the nuclear explosions had settled - a scorching, radioactive desert summer.

Around a week after the initial nuclear explosions, rain started to fall; however, none of it was drinkable. The rain was black; tainted with soot, ash, radioactive elements produced by the nuclear explosions and various other contaminants produced by nuclear weapons. This rain marked the start of the terrible fallout that marked the true, permanent destruction caused by the Great War. The rain lasted four long days, killing thousands of species that had survived the initial destruction of the bombs, be they animal, plant or micro-organisms. Those few living things, human, animal or plant, that survived after the rain ended were left to live in the now barren wasteland that had spread across the Earth, where nearly all pre-War plant life had died either in the initial explosions or from the intense radiation produced by the fallout.

Thanks to the efforts of Robert House, most of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada and the Hoover Dam remained intact, and many buildings still have electricity as of 2281. In the pre-War era, about 20 years before the Great War, House predicted when the bombs would fall. In the meantime he installed defenses such as laser turrets on the roof of the Lucky 38 Casino, which destroyed most of the incoming Chinese ballistic missiles before they hit Las Vegas. In time, the remains of Las Vegas came to be known as New Vegas.


	2. Chapter 1

Part 1: Ain't That A Kick In The Head

 **October 2281 - Diary Of The Courier**

I saw a flash, like a flare going off very close.

The first thing I felt is a pain, searing like fire.

The second thing I felt was my head, throbbing like hell

The third thing I felt was a shot in my spine

The last thing I felt was my ear vibrating.

As my vision slowly lost its haze and the world became clear, I could make out a figure of a man. I realized I was still alive.

"You're awake" came a weak rasp from his mouth, "How about that"

With what little strength I still had left, I pulled myself forward but almost collapsed backwards because my legs were so weak. "Whoa, easy there…easy" said the man, reaching out to help me. My vision was slightly clearer now, and the figure was an elderly man, in his 60's. He wore a dark leather jacket, a pair of brown cargo pants, and had a thick white mustache."You've been out cold a couple of days now" he said, sounding surprised. "Why don't you relax a moment, get your bearings" he said, sounding bored as if he had done this thousands of times before.

"Let's see what the damage is…how about your name?"

My name, Michael Hogan. It came back to me, but I was shocked that it took me a while to remember my own name. I must have gone through some hell of an accident.

"Can you tell me your name?" He repeated.

"Yeah, it's Michael Hogan, I'm a Courier" I managed to utter, I found speaking to be quite challenging, but after a few words I got the hang of it again.

"Wellit's great to meet you;I'm Doc Mitchell, surgeon and a doctor here at Goodsprings"

"Goodsprings?" I asked quizzically

"Yeah, where you're sitting right now. Ain't surprised you can't remember where you are"

"Wha….what do you mean?" I shouted, I had to know what had happened to me

"Well…a couple of nights ago some guys took you up to the local cemetery and shot you, right in between that noggin of yours. Victor brought you in, and I had a look at you to see if you were still kickin, turns out you were."

"Victor?" I asked

"Yeah, he's one of them robots from RobCo, cheery fella. Brought you in about a week ago"

"Now before I forget, I hope you don't mind but I had to go rooting around in your head to pull all the bits of lead out. I take pride in my needlework, but you better tell me if I left anything out of place"

He handed me a wooden mirror, with a few cracks in it. Looking into it everything seemed ok I looked like I did, but under my hair was a huge scar from the stitching; I dropped the mirror and screamed.

"Whoa easy there, now tell me, is a scar better, or being dead in a ditch?" He said sarcastically

I calmed down after that, and finally felt a bit stronger

"Well no use keeping you in bed, let's see if we can get you on your feet"

He reached forward and slowly moved me off the bed onto the floor. It took a while but I got a firm footing on the wooden floor and had the strength to keep myself up. This place looked terrible.A wooden home, with a bunch of broken shelves, dirty windows held together by weak, rotten boards of wood and cracked roofing, but just like anywhere in the Mojave; it wasn't intended to look like this.

"Why don't we get you over to that vigor test machine there, see if your vitals are good. Take it slow now, it ain't a race." He said.

The machine looked like some old arcade machine, built into a wooden cabinet with a screen and a whole bunch of numbers

"I assume you haven't used one of these before. I know there ain't that many of them around these parts, so let me tell you how these work. They test you to see how your 'special' skills are. That's strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and answer the questions, press the buttons and you'll do fine"

It asked me some questions with multiple choices, and about ten minutes later it came to a screen with some results:

Strength: Five

Perception: Six

Endurance: Four

Charisma: Seven

Intelligence: Nine

Agility: Seven

Luck: Two

"Well look at that" he said, looking at my results. "Maybe those bullets did your brain some good, that's a great intelligence you got there, but that don't make a lick of sense, you get shot in the head and survive? You're the luckiest son of a gun in Vegas. And it's good to see those bullets didn't affect your charm none"

He walked off into an adjoining room, and sat down on a small dirty seat"What do you say you take a seat on my couch and we go through a couple of questions. See if your dogs are still barkin" he asked me. So I sat down and answered a couple of questions. I thought they were rather odd; I just had to say the first word that came to my head.

"Ok, now before I turn you loose I need one last thing from you; I got a form for you to fill out, so I can get a sense of your medical history, just a formality. Ain't like I expect to find you've got a family history of getting shot in the head"

He handed me a sheet with a number of options on it about my behaviour, it detailed something about a "Wild Wasteland" which I agreed with, signed the sheet with what I thought and handed it back to him.

He stood up and walked towards the door with his keys to let me leave. It was a shame to leave him; after all he did just save my life and probably did it for free. I don't have anything in the way of friends that would pay to save me.

"Here" he said at the door, handing me a backpack "Was all you had on you when you were brought in. Hope you don't mind but I gave this note you had a look. Thought it might help you find a next of kin, but it was just about a platinum chip" A platinum chip…I was delivering it to New Vegas, but I got ambushed on the way, It appeared that's whythey attacked me, for the chip.

"Well, if you're heading back out there you should have this. They call it a Pip-Boy, I grew up in one of those vaults and everyone got one. Ain't much use to me now, but you might want such a thing. It organizes you, tells you what's in your backpack, and monitors your vitals so you know if your poisoned, radiated or have broken bones. And best of all, it serves as a Radio."

"Thanks Doc" I said, I can't thank him enough for saving my life, especially from being shot in the seemed like an amazing doctor. "Don't mention it; it's what I'm here for. And put this on, so the locals don't pick on you for lacking modesty" He laughed, and handed me a dusty, leather overcoat "You can go and change in my room, just head right" So I went and got changed, and returned to the door.

"You should talk to Trudy before you leave town. She can help you find those men who shot you" he said.

"Thanks again!" I said enthusiastically, and opened the door to the world outside.


	3. Chapter 2

Part 2: Welcome To Goodsprings

I stepped out into the Mojave, to be instantly blinded by the extremely bright and towering sun. My body once again, shook at the tremendous heat of the outside world. It radiated through my body, and felt as if I had fallen into molten lava. As my eyes once again adjusted to their surroundings, I gazed forward through my still hazy eyes to see the town of Goodsprings. A town of wooden and brick shacks, most facing terrible structural damage, entire sections of wall gone, as if an elephant had crashed through them, crumbling paintwork, smashed fence work and awful amounts of dust that made seeing far difficult. One building, named the "Prospectors Saloon" seemed the only recognizable building. A small neon sign flickered, and blew in the dusty breeze, struggling to keep itself working.

A tumbleweed rolled by me, and it was followed by a large robot, about 8 foot. It moved on a monowheel, with a tough body of metal. It had thin arms, ending with grappling hooks, like those in grabbling machines at arcades. Large shoulders of steel, an antenna above itself and a monitor, like a television mounted into the middle of its body, protected by hardened glass. I slowly approached it to see it turn to me, it had a cowboy on the monitor.

"Well howdy partner, good to see you again!" it said, in a stereotypical cowboy accent.

"Hey" I Replied "Are you Victor?"

"Sure am, you here to thank me for that?" It said.

"Well yeah, thanks for digging me out of that grave" I said, and almost hugged it.

"Don't mention it. I'm always ready to lend a hand to a stranger in need" It said.

"So, how did you save me?" I Asked quizzically.

"I was out for a stroll that night when I heard a bunch of commotion up at the graveyard. Saw what looked like a bunch of bad eggs, so I laid low. Once they'd run off, I dug you up to see if you were alive, turned out you were and I hauled you off to the Doc right quick." It said

"Well, do you know the men who attacked me?" I asked

"Can't say that I'm familiar with the rascals. Some of the fine folks in town might be able to help you out with that." It said, and began to turn away.

"Ok, thanks again" I said, and waved the robot off while it moved on into the distance, departing up the cracked road to somewhere, I watched it for a while until the haze and dust left it as an unrecognizable figure. I decided I should go check out the Prospectors Saloon. There was almost no sign of life outside the Doc's shack, other than Victor of course. I stepped up to the door and opened it into the decrepit building.

I turned to see a dog, snarling and barking madly at me. I had my arms and back to the wall as the dog slowly approached me. "Cheyenne, Stay" came a voice from my side; the dog moved back and stopped barking at me. "Don't worry; she won't bite unless I tell her to."

It was a teenage girl, around eighteen years old. She wore a rough leather shirt and a pair of loose dusty jeans. "Thanks" I said "Thought that dog was going to kill me."

"She's got a hell of a pair of teeth, doesn't she? Makes a great companion out in the wastes for killing any kind of critter that wants me for dinner." She said and laughed. "Name's Sunny Smiles. Nice to meet you"

"Michael Hogan, I'm a Courier" I said and shook her hand "So what do you do?"

"Oh Me? I'm like Goodspring's unofficial sheriff. I keep it safe of the geckos that always attack." She said.

"Well, it was good to meet you, see you around" I said and turned away to check out the rest of the bar. It wasn't in much of a better state. Small holes pierced every wall, letting in streams of light. There were dented metal tables, dirty and squeaky floorboards, as well as considerably broken windows. The bar wasn't what you would call teeming with life, a few old locals and a female bartender. I got a sharp look from a few of the men; they had grim faces and seemed to pay a lot of attention to me. I sat down on a mouldy bar stool and began to look through my Backpack; I forgot to look through it when I left.

It contained one hundred and thirty two bottle caps (currency), half a glass of vodka, ten lock picks, a second hand, automatic hunting rifle with a box of .308 ammunition. It was beat to hell, and held together with duct tape, but it was a reliable weapon which I knew how to use, I assume the men who attacked me didn't take it for its broken appearance. I attached a scope to it, and with it I was able to take out things from far distances. And lastly of course, my diary, that I used to write this story, and that holds a ton of knowledge about survival and the wastes, I probably wouldn't be here without writing down a few tricks and tactics of survival.

With my backpack in order, I tried out my Pipboy for the first time. Whenever I picked something up I would hold it in front of the Pipboy and it would scan it, so it knew what I was carrying and I didn't have to unpack to know what I had. It was attached to my body, and seemed to be stuck on for good. I was a little concerned about it, but I'm sure Doc Mitchell could always remove it if I needed it off. It made a small cut in my skin, with a tube going into it, so it could measure if I was infected, if I had broken bones or if I had a severe case of radiation poisoning. It was incredibly helpful compared to my old method of seeing a doctor to know. Lastly, I came to its radio. I tuned into the "Mojave Music Radio" and was amazed at the sound quality. With my Pipboy and backpack sorted I sat forward to see the bartender turn to me.

"So, you're that guy that got shot in the head?" she asked me "Amazing to see you're alive after that"

"Thanks" I said "I take it you're Trudy?"

"Certainly am. Did Doc Mitchell tell you to come here?" she asked

"Yeah, he told me you could help me find those men who shot me" I responded

"You sure you want to go after those guys?" she said amusingly "I'm sure having them shoot you in the head would be a good reason not to pursue them."

"I have a score to settle with them, they have something important to me" I said

"Well, I don't know much, other than they're a bunch of freeloaders who expected a few rounds on the house. I was able to get them to pay up though. Of course, one of them did knock my radio to the floor 'by accident', and it hasn't been working since."

"You still haven't told me where they were going…" I said, with little patience.

"Sorry. I'm not sure, but the guy in the chequered shirt seemed to be leading them. Heard him talking about the Strip. Seems the best place to check, but its miles from here. Maybe try talking to Victor? He's the one who saved you, he should know." She said

"Yeah, I'm on a wild goose chase here, Victor told me to come to you" I said and laughed "Well thanks, Oh and want me to take a look at your radio?" I asked.

"Sure." She said. "The outside looks ok, but I think something broke on the inside. There'd be bottle caps in it for you. I do like to hear what goes on in the world, and that Mr. New Vegas seems like such a gentleman." She said.

I stood up and went behind the bar to her radio. I knew quite a bit about fixing technology, it was an important skill in the wastes, and technology plays a big part in some areas. You can learn to hack computer terminals to open safes or doors that lead to treasures that were locked away, before the Great War. I unscrewed the back and took a look at the internal components. I found the problem instantly, a few components had come loose and all I had to do was slot them back together. After about three minutes I rescrewed the back on and tuned the radio into the Mojave Music Radio, to which the room filled with the sound of music.

"Great, are you a technician?" she asked "Here's forty bottle caps for the work, and nice to see you've got a good taste of station"

"Thanks again" I said, it seemed as if she was impressed by me "How about a drink on the house? My head still hurts from being shot.

"Sure" she said, and poured a cocktail into a glass. "Enjoy"

And with that I took a swig of this mystery cocktail to find it was very refreshing and strong, it had a gorgeous taste and almost made me forget my problems. I had to ask for another, and after five drinks I finally stopped, but it cost me all the money I got for fixing the radio. I asked her for the recipe and offered to pay some caps for it but she wasn't particularly interested.

"Well, maybeI'll see you again some day, but do you have a general store in town?" to which a few members of the bar roared with laughter, including Trudy. "We sure do" she said. "Right next door, can't have missed it, but I'm sure that those bullets can explain it."

So I left with my belongings to get away from the embarrassment I caused myself, and headed next door to the general store to see what was on offer.


	4. Chapter 3

**Part 3: Entering The Wasteland**

The General store wasn't any better. The windows were boarded, the shelves were broken and bent, the glass counter and displays were all broken, and the floor was littered with cans and other miscellaneous objects. In front of me was the store owner, or at least I would imagine he would be, busy sweeping the floor with a broom. He wore a dirty leather apron, shabby denim trousers and dusty, thick hiking boots. He had a black beard and mustache, as well as a small pair of reading glasses, held together with tape. I approached him to notice him look up at me.

"So you must be the one Doc Mitchell was patching up, the way I heard it, I didn't think you'd be walking out of that office. I'm Chet, Owner of this store and I've got plenty of supplies for sale, if you're interested."

"You didn't think I'd be walking out of that office?" I said snidely "Doc Mitchell is a great Doctor."

"True, but would you imagine someone could survive if they were shot, square between the eyes?" he said sarcastically.

"Forget it, just let me look at your inventory" I said aggressively.

"Sure" he said, and invited me into the back of the store, where a small collection of items awaited. There was a considerable amount of ammunition of different types for rifles, pistols and shotguns. He had pain killers, Anti-poisons of all different kinds, an assortment of food and of course, weaponry. But my hunting rifle, beat and broke as it was, almost certainly was more reliable than anything he had to offer me. One thing for certain is that water is vital in the desert-like environment outside, so I quickly purchased a couple bottles of water. I was also interested in the Med-X he had, which was a pain killing drug. You just injected it straight into your arm and got fast pain relief. But you can't beat standard bandages, and I took a few of them, plus one Med-X. At the end of my "shopping spree" I was down to 20 bottlecaps, not what you would call swimming in cash, I needed to get some money from somewhere if I was to survive out here in the wastes. I left the store to go in search around Goodsprings.

I wasn't particularly sure what I was to do now, the only true objectives were to gather some caps and find the men who shot me. In a place as big as the Mojave, every nook and cranny could contain something valuable. But most importantly was to gather bottlecaps I would need to pay for things; you never know when you need to spend some money to survive. Around Goodsprings were a number of small shacks, beaten in by the weather and nuclear bombs dropped years ago in the Great War. Before heading elsewhere, I felt the need to scavenge what I could from the abandoned buildings, and while in town I might as well.

I searched a couple of the buildings but one thing became clear, the residents had picked the place clean. There was nothing worth scavenging, not even anything with tiny value, so I left the town to the north, to begin my journey into the wasteland. I passed my gravesite, and noticed a Snowglobe in the graveyard that seemed very unusual, they're few of them still in pristine condition, and in such an unusual place I wasn't sure what to make of it. I picked it up and continued on my journey. Just ahead of me I could spot some Cazadors. They look like large flies, due to the radiation that has mutated them into their current form, and which hasmutated lots of other animals, like Cows into Brahmin. But these Cazadors were something to fear. They looked like weak creatures you could easily take out with just a handgun, but let them get close to you and sting you, and their poison will kill you in seconds with no anti-poison.

I retreated back to the town and headed south, hoping I would encounter less deadly creatures. I found a few Radscorpions, which are mutated scorpions, with tougher skin due to adapting to the dusty weather. They have poison, but it's nothing serious and any tough guy can cope with the pain it induces. Still, I steered clear of them and worked my way around them to come across what looked like a construction site. Some men in hardhats, and some temporary shacks in place. I was stopped by one of the men who was wearing construction gear and had a thick grey beard.

"Hold up!" the man shouted "There are Deathclaws, all over the damn place north of here."

Those words sent a shiver up my spine….a Deathclaw is the most dangerous creature you can encounter in the Mojave wasteland, no questions asked. They're taller than a man and far stronger and faster. You'd have to be the meanest, toughest, roughest bastard in the wasteland to have any chance against them. They have tremendously sharp claws that cut through steel with ease. They have skin that is resistant to gunfire and explosives. But I think you get my point.

"Well, welcome to Sloan, I'm Chops Lewis." he said "We can't do anything but sit on our asses all day while the Deathclaws stay in the quarry, it's damn frustrating. You're welcome to take out those Deathclaws ahead out, if you're feeling suicidal."

"No thanks. I've seen what Deathclaws can do to people. You'd need a group of well armored men and rocket launchers to take out just one Deathclaw." I replied. "Oh, and do you have any work I can do?"

"Sure do. We've got a mole rat named snuffles, it's got an injured leg and it keeps our morale up. Seeing it injured certainly makes us feel glum. We've also got a broken generator that is supposed to give the camp light at night. Damn Radscorpions attack at night, and we have no light to warn of their approach. I'll pay you nicely if you fix the generator" he told me.

It seemed like boring jobs, but I was fairly desperate for the caps and I agreed to look at the generator. It looked ok from the outside, but I borrowed a screwdriver and got to work with the screws on the back. Whoever assembled it had no idea what they were doing. Many parts are connected incorrectly and wired up to the wrong parts. Anyone with an advanced knowledge of technology could repair it, and luckily I had that knowledge. After about forty minutes I finished, and returned to Lewis to collect my pay.

"Damn fine job." He said "That'll make the Radscorpions easier to deal with. Here's two hundred caps. If you want you can sleep for the night in our shack, seems the sun is going down."

"Good idea, I don't have a flashlight either. It would just be suicide" I joked and went inside the shack, while the sun fell behind me. I pulled out a dusty book about technology and learned a few things, before drifting off to sleep to wait for the morning.


	5. Chapter 4

**Part 4: To The Strip**

Once I woke up, I left Sloan and chose to take the mountains that were close by, either that or head north, and face the Deathclaws. But with my luck, I kept tripping on the mountains, and fell over to severely injure my leg, which I had to use a bandage to fix, and I limped for an annoyingly long journey. While on the top of the large hill, I pulled out my rifle and looked down the scope to get an idea of the surroundings. Above me was what looked like a big radio station, and upon entering the mountains, my Pipboy picked up a signal for the "Black Mountain Radio" I tuned in, but got a bunch of unusual ramblings from a deep voice, broken up by segments of music. Below me I could see the Deathclaws moving around, they looked like creatures from hell, And they were both intimidating and downright scary. I managed to get around the mountains safely and avoid the Deathclaws, and came to the "El Dorado Substation" as a rusty sign on the building told me. It was surrounded by a number of NCR troops.

The NCR (New California Republic) are a group set up after the Great War, and strive to return the Mojave Wasteland to its former glory. It controls a vast quantity of the Mojave, and it has a strong presence across the wastes. They're good people, and they follow orders as best they can. I was with them, being a Courier for the Mojave Outpost that sends messages and packages across the wasteland. They have seen recent difficult in the last few years, due to fierce competition with Caesar's Legion, who have the same goal.

Caesar's Legion is a group that set out to control the wastes. They have similarities to ancient Rome, and they dress as if they are roman soldiers. Unlike the NCR, they are not nice people. They use slavery, murder and rape to get what they want, and it's particularly unsettling to see what they can do. They also hold a considerable amount of the wasteland, luckily they have a fairly centralized location, and you don't see them very often in the wastes. Their soldiers are experienced, well trained and tough soldiers. They are trained in martial arts and melee, even though guns are the primary cause of warfare, just in case their weapons break or get jammed. They have a ranking system that goes from simple recruits all the way up to generals. It is important to stay away from them, because they are against anyone who isn't a member. I will explain the two group in more detail later.

I approached the building, but was stopped and told by a guard stationed at the door to leave. I can imagine they would want me to stay out of their business, so without arguing I turned and continued heading north. I had to do a bit of fighting, as a gang of thugs approached me, and managed to catch me off guard without a weapon. It seemed to be going in their favour, until they made the terrible mistake of getting too close, they were cocky and arrogant, and didn't realize they had made such a mistake. I grabbed one of their guns, and blasted the gang to hell, spreading guts and blood across my clothing and the ground around me. I searched the bodies and found a few interesting things on them.

They had a modified machete, so that it had small grooves in it, all along the front. It made it terribly effective, and it would cut through skin with ease. I didn't like it, but I was going to use it because it would come in very handy, even if it meant the person I used it against would suffer horribly. They had a pair of night-vision goggles, but the battery pack was cracked, and the batteries were all rusty and didn't work. They would come in as a useful tool at night, but first I had to repair them. They also had three hundred bottlecaps, a handful of ammo, luckily the same type as my hunting rifle, a pistoland also a supply of drugs, lots of them. They had Jet, Med-X, Anti-venom, Rad-Away, Stimpacks, Buffout and Steady. These are all performance boosting drugs, but they are addictive and can be very dangerous if you get addicted. I will explain them some more, later.

I came across a small trading post, known as the "188 Trading Post" which was luckily just what I needed. I was struggling to carry all of my equipment, and there were a few traders that I could sell to. I sold the majority of my drugs, with a few left over for me to use. I purchased a utility belt, so I could have my machete, drugs and pistol at quick access if I needed them. I also purchased a couple of hand grenades. They came in great for clearing out rooms, that would be hard to do with guns. Finally, I bought some pads of Kevlar to place around my body and make me a little more resistant to gunfire, a face mask to protect from all the dust in the Mojave, and more bottles of water. I had been walking for a few hours and the sun started going down, so I convinced a trader to let me sleep in his caravan, since I had bought so much from him.


	6. Chapter 5

**Part 5: Meeting Old Friends**

Once I woke up, I headed south to find a small, deserted looking town. Most of the buildings were completely destroyed, but there was one still relatively intact. I approached it to investigate, but heard gunfire behind me. I drew my pistol, and turned the corner to investigate. When I turned, I found about ten NCR officers with their guns in my face.

"Holster your weapon!" one of the officers shouted "Or this'll get messy"

I quickly agreed and lowered my weapon. "Sorry about that" I said. "I heard gunfire and came to investigate" to which they put their guns down.

"Well, looks like you got here just in the nick of time" the officer said. "We've got a hostage situation ahead. Some Great Khan's kidnapped my men and have them at gunpoint. You're welcome to try and sort the situation out, there'll be caps in it for you."

As crazy as the offer was I agreed. I needed the caps, and I was sure my charisma could convince the Great Khans to release the hostages. I turned around the hill with my hands up to signal I'm not a threat, and walked towards the building were the Great Khans were. There were lots of NCR troopers, hiding behind rubble with their guns drawn, ready to move in if something went wrong. I opened the door to the building they were in, and almost wish I hadn't.

As soon as I entered, I had my body and arms to the wall. One of the Khans had his revolver out, and pointing right in my face. I wasn't ready to accept another bullet to the head, so I put my hands up and dropped my weapon. However, I noticed the Khan's face went dead pale as if he was scared

"WHAT THE HELL!" He screamed. "You're that courier Benny wasted in Goodsprings. You're supposed to be dead!"

"Well as you can see I'm not" I said. "And I believe you have something of mine…"

"Yeah…about that" he said, sounding worried. "Don't have it. Benny stole it, right before stabbing us in the back. He's probably back at the strip now, laughing at me."

"So. Why would Benny steal the Chip?" I asked

"He's a fucking snake, that's why. He owed us the rest of the money for capturing and shooting you. He managed to get away with the Chip."

"Well then. Shall we settle this situation with the NCR?" I asked?

"What's there to settle?" he said sarcastically "If the NCR backs out of here, no one gets hurt."

"But you have their men. They won't let you leave until you release those prisoners. Now you're stuck in this building, with little food and no way to resupply. They are outside with lots of food and ways to resupply, they also outnumber you with better weaponry. So tell me…who has the greater chance of winning here?"

The Great Khan kicked a seat in frustration. "FINE. We'll free the hostages only if they let us leave without a fight." He said.

"Of course they will. That was their deal all along" I said, and noticed them begin to pack away their equipment. On the way out the Khan turned to me.

"Here." He said, and passed me a cigarette lighter. "It's Benny's lighter. Shove it up his ass when you catch up to him, would you?" he said, laughed and walked out. I returned to the NCR officer to collect my pay.

"Damn fine work." He said. "Those Khans aren't easy to work with, and I'm glad to see you could free them. Here are three hundred caps. You probably won't care, but I just got orders to take out the Great Khans, hostages or not."

"NO!" I screamed. "Your offer was to let them go in return for the hostages. Surely you want to honour the deal don't you?"

"My hands are tied. Orders are orders, aren't they?" he said sadly.

"If you have any integrity, then you'll honour the deal." I said "Besides, if you kill these Great Khans and don't follow your agreement, you'll have the whole Great Khans coming down on you. Let them live and get back, and they will spread word of how you let them leave without a fight."

"Damn, you've got some speech skills, I could use someone like you." He said in a bold voice. "You're right. The Khans are free to leave. I think I owe you an extra one hundred caps, out of my own pocket for your expertise." He said and smiled to me. He seemed very impressed at my accomplishment. I shook his hand and started heading north to reach New Vegas, until I saw a familiar face.

"Well howdy partner. Good to see you again. Fancy meeting you here." Came a familiar voice. I saw Victor, hanging around.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Just rollin' along on my spurs, looks like I might make it to New Vegas after all." He said.

"Alright, well did you see Benny come this way?" I asked.

"So that's the fella's name. Haven't seen a hair of him since the tussle in Goodsprings. I'm sure he ran back to the soft living of New Vegas." He said.

"Yeah, he is back in New Vegas. Would you mind if I came with you to there?" I asked Victor

"Course not!" he said. "Be glad to have some company on the way to Vegas, come on let's go." And with that, we headed north and soon reached the gates around Vegas.

"I'm sure you can handle yourself from here. See you 'round partner!" Victor said, and departed for the shiny gates of Vegas.

And so, I stepped foot through the gate to find myself in the slum of Freeside.


	7. Chapter 6

**Part 6: Freeside**

New Vegas used to be free for anyone to enter or leave. Around it was the wreckage of some of the old casinos, that were vandalized and no longer in use. Everyone would stay in New Vegas, but would often cause damage and vandalize the casinos. When it became aware to Mr. House, he constructed a large wall that surrounded the high quality part of Vegas and put his Securitron guards to protect the one entrance. He enforced that anyone allowed on the Strip should have two thousand bottlecaps with them, to ensure that it was more exclusive, and there would be less could become good for those rich enough to pass the bottlecap check. Everyone unable to pay was kicked out of Vegas, and left to live in the broken, shanty and bombed remnants of the Vegas casinos. Overtime, this area became known as Freeside, and it was filled with the poor, drunk and violent criminals that came for the Vegas lifestyle, but could not pass the credit check. This left it as a dangerous and uncertain location, and it is quickly moved through to avoid the muggers and psychopaths that stay within trying to get through the gates. There are two "main" groups, that ensure some sense of order within Freeside. The "Kings" as they call themselves, and "The Followers of the Apocalypse", a group of medical students and doctors that try to care for the drunk and injured that fill the streets.

Luckily for myself, I came armed and ready. Having a firearm visible makes many choose to keep their distance, and with my well armored appearance and utility belt, I seemed like an organized person and could walk through Freeside with relative safety, of course I would still keep my hand ready to draw my gun if needed. I had one thousand, two hundred and forty bottlecaps, about a quarter short of being able to enter Vegas. I had nothing to sell, so I would have to find some way of getting more. The few buildings that had some integrity left were quickly taken and looted, so I wouldn't be able to scavenge for supplies to sell. I could try to bring some reform to Freeside, and it was in desperate need of someone to step in and solve the major problems of the area. I headed into one of the few decent places; a bar named "The Atomic Wrangler", sat down on a stool and ordered a drink, while I planned how to get to Vegas.

I was approached by a female bartender. She had a dark black suit and neatly combed hair. I was a little surprised to see someone well dressed in a place full of drunks and low lifes. A name tag on her shirt gave her the name "Francine Garret"

"Traveler, Huh?" she said, realising I wasn't a regular. "Let me give you a piece of advice. Get out of Freeside as soon as you can. There are so many looters and thugs on the streets that you'd be safer with a Deathclaw."

"Well, I've been shot in the head, survived and made it this far, I'm sure I can handle myself. " I replied.

"Ever visited Freeside before? It's not what you would call the Mojave's greatest tourist attraction. There's scumbags that'll mug you, just so they can steal your clothes to keep warm." She told me. "Freeside has really gone to hell. And we can hardly make a profit, when all our clients have to cross the 'Death Valley', as I like to call it, to get here."

"Yeah I'll try, in the meantime, do you have any work around here? I'm just short of enough caps to enter Vegas."

"Shit, you're almost able to get to Vegas? Godspeed. The sooner you're out of this hell hole, the sooner you'll be grateful, trust me." She said "I'm just lucky I've got this bar. Every once in a while, we get a client that gets through getting murdered and just barely keeps us going. With having to hire Body guards to keep us safe, and paying for alcohol nobody ever drinks, we are scraping to get by. If only we could get to the glamour behind the cold, steel gates."

"Still haven't answered my question." I replied.

"Oh sorry, sure do." She said "we have a Caps up front policy. A while ago we allowed customers tabs, and you can see where this idea turned to shit. A few clients slipped out without paying, and we'd rather not risk searching every nook and cranny for them to pay. I'd give you a thirty percent cut of the credits if you bring me back their tabs.

"Sounds good." I said "So who am I after?"

"You'll be after three people. Grecks, Lady Jane and Santiago." She replied. "Lady Jane thinks herself a high roller, but she's just another dirt bag NCR prospector. Santiago is a suave son of a bitch, but a total pansy when it comes to fisticuffs. Finally, Grecks is a bit cracked but mostly harmless, don't mention his eye though. They'll all be around Freeside somewhere. If you bring them in, I'm sure you can get to Vegas soon."

"Great." I replied, finished my drink and left the bar to go in search of these people.


	8. Chapter 7

**Part 7: Bounty Hunting**

Outside the bar, I had no idea where I should start. For one, Freeside was very large. These deadbeats could be hiding under any hole or pile of rubble. Another good reason is how dangerous it could be, I wasn't surprised that they didn't want to go hunting these people. Anyone could turn against me, and the buildings themselves could collapse on me, with their lack of care and attention. I was going to have to pay attention to get out of here without a scratch. I moved slowly and carefully through the destroyed, deserted streets and soon came across Grecks, camping around a rusty barrel on fire, in the desolate and dilapidated remains of a casino. He turned to me and I took a step backwards in disgust at his face. It looked as if you could see maggots in his was almost no skin, which left him looking like a vicious monster with the body of a human. He was a Ghoul; a human caught in the intense nuclear heat, which is what has left him like this. I slowly approached him and delivered my message.

"What do you want, Smoothskin?" he said with a rough tongue, I'm sure his voice was deep due to how damaged his vocal cords were.

"I've been hired by the Atomic Wrangler to come and collect your unpaid tab." I said, getting straight to the point. The smell of his exposed flesh was revolting, even getting through my mask. I wanted to get out of here with the caps as soon as possible.

"Hey Smoothskin, look at me. Do you think I've got the caps to pay them back?" he groaned.

"Not particularly, you look like you haven't got anything." I said.

"EXACTLY SMOOTHSKIN. Good to see you're finally at the point. I've got no caps and I barely survive out here, so just leave me alone." He said.

"So what do I tell Francine?" I asked.

"TELL HER I HAVE NO FUCKING MONEY." He screamed at me. "And don't mug me either. I've got nothing but the clothes on my back, and I'd like to keep it that way. Do me a favour, and pay her your own money and say it's mine. Best favour you can do me, other than shoot me and end this god damn hellhole we all live in."

I wasn't ready to stand around to smell his body any longer. It smelt like a rotting corpse on fire, if not worse. I quickly turned and ran the other way, and chose to take him up on his offer. I still had two people left to find, and after a couple minutes of searching I found someone who met the description of Santiago, In the attic of an old house.

"Hey, are you Santiago?" I asked.

"Yes I am." He said with a smiling face. He was well dressed in a suit, if a little dirty. "How are you today? Santiago is fabulous."

"Hello. Francine Garret wants me to collect your unpaid tab" I said.

"Santiago does not owe anyone. Santiago is a Freeside VIP." He said, and seemed very convincing. He had a truthful expression as if he didn't and seemed to cover himself fairly well, but I was warned of this.

"Francine warned me you're a smooth talker." I said.

"Indeed." He acknowledged. "Santiago is a poet among pretenders. If you're here to collect for the Garrets, Santiago is debt free."

I wasn't ready to let another person off without paying, so I quickly formulated a lie to tell. I myself was rather convincing, and I was sure that I could get him to pay.

"Shame that Francine put a bounty on anyone who didn't pay. I'll just have to collect." I said, and drew out my pistol, pulled out and placed in a fresh magazine, and got about halfway to pointing to his forehead before he shouted.

"STOP. PLEASE, I WILL PAY. Just let me live!" he quickly screamed, and payed me the caps for the job. "Never expected the Garrets to be such crazy fucks to put a bounty on me. And it's worse that you accepted their offer. Leave me alone now, will you? I don't need another heart attack today."

I had just one bounty left on Lady Jane, so I left to collect hers. However, I noticed somebody waving his arms and shouting that he needed help. He looked like a local, and he was dressed quite poorly that made him look like just about everyone else. I ran over to him and followed him down an alleyway before he stopped me at a dumpster.

"Check it out, between the dumpsters there." He said.

Looking between the two dumpsters, I saw a corpse, I immediately jumped back in shock.

"ARGH." I screamed. "Who the hell is that?"

"The last person stupid enough to follow us. GET HIM BOYS!" he shouted, as two of his friends accompanied him, with weapons of rusty machetes. I ran the opposite direction but was stopped at a fence. They slowly approached me, and I was about to be forced to defend myself, even when outnumbered and cornered.


	9. Chapter 8

**Part 8: Without A Hope**

I was panting, as thousands of thoughts rushed around my head about how to solve this situation, in the few seconds I had as the attackers slowly approached and taunted me. Obviously they weren't going to accept money or persuasion to walk away, this was going to take some fighting. I went to draw my machete but it literally fell out of its handle, I forgot to ever test it. In about a split second of looking up, I saw a heavy, huge sledge hammer coming for my head. I quickly ducked, and saw the guy slam through me and go straight through the fence, severely cutting himself. Just as I turned around, I felt an intense pain consume my body, looking down I saw a machete, puncturing deeply into my intestines. The guy's face lit up with "happiness" and I quickly returned the favour by pulling my pistol from my belt and placing It between his temples. What followed was a deafening bang, and a splattering of skull, flesh and brain of the surrounding area. His corpse fell on top of me and I found myself unable to lift it.

The last guy came rushing at me, raving and taunting while he did, I was sure this was the last time I would see the Mojave. I closed my eyes and slowly waited for the inevitable, but it never came. I opened my eyes to see that the last guy had tripped over the blood of the person I shot, and impaled himself. I was unsure how this could happen with my luck, and I chuckled while I pushed off the corpse from my body. I firmly placed my foot on the last guy's chest, and placed the gun to his testicles. I wanted him to suffer longer for what he did to me. I pulled the trigger and heard an ear shattering scream from the guy, which almost knocked me backwards. I placed the gun between his eyes, as he struggled to reach the machete that impaled him. I kicked it away, pulled the trigger, and sighed in relief. But my fight was just getting started.

The sudden feeling of euphoria for killing my attackers quickly drained, and I moaned with pain as blood ran through the puncture wound. I covered it as best I could with my fingers, and slowly limped towards the nearby fort. This was where the Followers Of The Apocalypse were, the group of medical students that were well needed in a place like this. I pushed the doors of the fort open and fell straight down. My vision faded, and my last sight was of medical staff screaming, and placing me into a tent. I was sure I would never see the light of day again.

The first thing that I saw was the blackness that surrounded my eyes slowly fade away, revealing a face looking down upon me. A pretty, young women wearing medical equipment smiled at the sight of my eyes opening, and reached for a medical clipboard. I still found myself unable to bring any words to my mouth, but I could wiggle my finger and toes. It took a good few minutes for me to gain any significant control over my body. Until then, I sat back and listened to what she had to say.

"Oh great!" she said with enthusiasm. "You're finally waking up. You've only been out for about four hours. Your injury wasn't that bad, and it didn't take us long to fix it up. You're quite lucky you didn't get an infection, we'd have to pay for the antibiotics with your money. Don't worry, we haven't taken a whole lot of your caps. We only took the amount it cost to heal you, a simple sewing skin job with a slight blood transfusion for only three hundred caps. You were hit just under your intestines, if it had punctured them, I'm afraid you'd be the look of when you first got here, you must have been attacked close by. If you had lost any more blood you'd have a much worse chance. You can leave whenever you want, but I strongly recommend you sleep the night here, your body needs the rest."

By this point I could move most of my body, and the girl helped me stand up to see if I had the strength to walk. I was grateful that they saved my life, but at the same time angry that I had to go through the pain and loss of caps. My body felt incredibly stiff, I was only moving by forcing my legs forward, rather than moving properly. I decided to take her up on her offer and stay the night, I was in no condition to walk. I took a seat outside and asked her a couple of questions.

"So...what happened when I was out?" I said slowly, taking time to get used to speaking.

"Well, you certainly caused a fuss around here." She said and laughed. "We had an argument about how we should save you. One of our 'Crazy' doctors as people around here like to call him, recommended that amputation was in order to save you." She fell over laughing, and got up after a few seconds. "Oh…but he's a good doctor, if a little crazy. Anyway, after we decided on what to do we simply sewed you up, gave you some blood and let you rest.

"Well, Thank you so much for saving my life. I owe you more than what you took." I said and smiled.

"Well you can always leave us a tip" she joked. "But I'm quite serious. We have trouble dealing with everyone who walks in here, when we have poor medical equipment and a surrounding of dangerous criminals and thugs. I hope you dealt with whoever did this to you."

"Oh don't worry." I reassured her. "They won't be moving around anytime soon."

"Great. Well, name's Julie Farkas, hope you can get out of this shithole soon." She laughed and walked away. She seemed to be able to find the good side of everything, laughing to get the world around her out of her mind. I went back to my tent, to get some well needed rest.


	10. Chapter 9

**Part 9: Second Chance**

Upon waking up I felt much limbs were less tight, and I could walk properly instead of having to limp. I once again emerged from my tent, and chose to hang around inside the fort for a few hours, so I could get to know and thank those who saved my life, as well as regain my strength before stepping out into the dangerous city. The fort was a lot smaller and less sophisticated than I had imagined. There were only about fifteen tents within the fort, and three for storing medical supplies. The rest appeared cram packed full of weak, old men who appeared to be in far worse conditions than I was. Four large towers surrounded the fort on each side, which I presume is where the medical staff sleeps. The entrance was a huge old wooden door with rusty hinges, that required a lot of effort to open. I'm unsure how I found the strength to push it open when I was wounded, albeit, I did faint immediately afterwards.

After talking to most of the doctors, and leaving them all small donations in the form of a few caps, I noticed that in the corner of one of the tents was a middle aged doctor. He was dressed in white doctor's robes, with a pair of thick black glasses. The other staff had mentioned he was one of the men responsiblefor saving my life, so I went up to thank him.

"Hey, I really need to thank you for sav-"I said, before he interrupted me.

"You really don't need to bother. All I did was carry you into the tent." He said with a sad tone. "You really should talk to Julie and Michael, they did the most to save you. Hard to get any excitement out of life anymore, so doing just a little to save your life feels gratifying.

"Hell, even something as small as that is really important in saving me. For all you know, I could have been seconds away from death or going critical, that you helped me by getting me into the tent faster." I said, trying to cheer him up from his glum mood.

"Seriously?" he said surprised, and turned to me "You must still be feeling weary from being stabbed. I'm sorry, but what I did wouldn't have helped you live. I just happened to be close-by when you stumbled in. If I hadn't have grabbed you, or I was too far away, some other doctor would helped you in."

"Well for a guy who says that every little sweet thing is gratifying, you sure seem to be depressed." I suggested, trying to get him to see through his logic.

"Damn, you're right!" he yelled and banged a table with his hand. "You're really smart, you know that? You ought to work for the NCR, not be hanging around in this shithole. All that's going to happen is you'll get yourself hurt again, and this time, you might not be so lucky."

"Well maybe if I had a companion, I'd have a better chance dealing with them." I said, leading him onto journeying with me through the wastes.

"Really? You'd take some random doctor you've just met with you, through a dangerous town filled with junkies and rapists?" he pleaded, trying to convince me he's no good in a fight. "The best thing I could do in a fight is run, and that's not a useful skill."

"We aren't just going to stick around Freeside and wait to eventually be murdered, we'll be out soon, and then we can go journey to wherever we want. I'm sure that hanging around this boring fort where all you do is waste supplies on those old men, who are just going to go back out and get themselves attacked again, is tremendously boring."

"Damn, you are bang on the nail again." He really sounded convinced by me. "I'll join you, but on one condition. Do not, ever, help Caesar's legion." Sounding disgusted at just the name.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not ready to join a group of murderous, heartless bastards yet. We see any, I won't hesitate to shoot." I informed him.

"Well, glad to finally get out of this old folks home, and explore the wastes. To be honest, I'm in here only because just outside that door is hell. But with you beside me, I'm sure we can handle it. Just let me clear some business with Julie first, I'll be by the gate soon." He said, and wandered towards Julie. I went to the main gate and waited a few minutes before he came back to me.

"Just another question. If I'm stepping foot out there, I'm going to need a weapon." He quickly reminded me.

"Of course, silly me, take this" I said, as I reached into my bag to give him my pistol

"You sure this thing is safe?" he pondered, not willing to test a dangerous gun.

"I've fired it before, it's trustworthy. Take a test shooting if you need it, but it's honestly unnecessary" I replied.

"Alright then, let's get out there and get whatever you need done. Just try to get out this shithole asap, would you?" he hurried to say.

"Soon as I get two thousand caps, we can get into the strip. I'm already about 3 quarters of the way there." I said, to give him some faith we'd be done here soon, I said. "Well, name's Arcade Gannon by the way." he informed me. And with that, we pushed the old creaky door open and stepped foot into dangerous territory once more.


	11. Chapter 10

**Part 10: Doublecross**

Stepping foot outside for a second time wasn't any easier. As soon as I placed my foot outside the safety of the fort, I felt something was wrong immediately. I quickly took a good look around, up and down, to check for any sign of potential danger; I wasn't looking to get stabbed due to my lack of attention again. Fortunately, the coast appeared clear, but I still had to step gingerly. Treading carefully, we both made it back to the Atomic Wrangler to rather reluctantly hand over the funds we already had, to get our thirty percent. But after almost dying, and losing some caps, I wasn't ready to settle on just thirty percent.

Inside the Wrangler, the atmosphere was quiet. People sat and slowly drank their cocktails, the stage was unlighted, with nobody performing, and the general mood was glum. I stepped up to Francine who was busy cleaning the bar's plates and glasses.

"Oh hey, back already with the-" I Cut her off.

"We got two of them to pay up, but doing your job got me cut to hell! I've been in the fort for days getting my stomach sewn back together. I want at least double my cut, sixty percent." I ranted.

"Welcome to Freeside. Did you really expect to get through here, without getting yourself carved up like you're a turkey at Christmas? You fascinate me." She said, coldly.

"You…you're not going to compensate me?" I said in surprise.

"Why the hell do you think that we sent you? Those doors are practically the only things between us and an army of scruffy men with corrupt minds, and makeshift weaponry. You should have already known that Freeside is a shithole."

"Oh, I am not walking away from here without at least sixty percent. Unless you don't want the rest of your funds" I demanded.

"I'm sorry I have to do this. Greg, Phil! Get out here." She shouted, as two burly men carrying sawn off shotguns, emerged from behind the bar.

"What is this bullshit?" I demanded, asking for an answer.

"If you aren't going to keep your thirty percent, I'll ask these two lovely gentlemen to escort you out. Fail to comply, and they'll see to it your guts are spread through the whole of Freeside, for everyone to admire."

"Oh Christ, let's just get out of here while we can Michael." Arcade told me.

"You want me to give up this easily?" I replied "I didn't come this far to take a shotgun shell to the back."

"Actually you did." She said snidely "Keep going on like this, and you'll find yourself carrying shotgun slugs in your arse instead."

"God, you're a twisted woman, I offer to do your job, I get injured, and you don't give me any fucking compensation?" I said, repeating my argument.

"It isn't the 'good old times' anymore. We don't get cars, support from the government or school anymore. We make do with what we have, and like I told you before, we barely support ourselves. I'm sorry to call my guards on you, but I needed you to listen to me." She truthfully said.

I sighed. "Fine, we'll get you the last of your money. Take these two payments, and let us walk without lead in the ass please.

She laughed. "Of course. Come back when you have the payment, and don't run off with our money, because you won't want to find out what happens then.

"We'll be sure to." I said sarcastically, as we both walked out of the bar to get the last payment and get out of here.


	12. Chapter 11

**Part 11: The Search For The Lady**

Stepping outside to disappointment twice was not my particular plan, but avoiding glumness is a hard task these days, just as Arcade said. Regardless, we had to find Lady Jane and get her to pay her tab. After what seemed like hours, our search came up dry, she was one elusive woman. Luckily, after almost giving up our search and walking back to the bar, we noticed a hidden alleyway, leading to a dead end, with a lady matching her description.

"Hey, would you be Lady Jane?" I questioned

She turned to us, and I was quite surprised by her appearance. She was an elderly woman, around sixty years old. Her fancy, quality and classic clothing made her stand out, from the rest of the filthily dressed that littered the streets.

"Yes dear" she said, with a polite voice.

"We're from the Garrets. We've come to collect the tab you owe." I said

"Oh, I'm sorry gentlemen, but I have nothing to pay you with! It costs a lot to keep up appearances nowadays." She said, with a vague face, as if she was hiding something from me.

"So what's a classy lady like yourself doing in this crappy part of town? You should be hanging out in Vegas, with all the classy society that hang out there." Arcade said, which made her expression change to a gaping mouth."

"I…left for a change of scenery" she said, with quite some trouble. Seems Arcade was onto something.

"I never realized you enjoyed the wonderful sights and sounds of dead hobos, broken glass and screaming of victims. I can just imagine how boring the shiny casinos and quality life is over there." Arcade exclaimed sarcastically. The face on Lady Jane became even more befuddled by his questions, slowing drawing her to give us the full story.

"Yes…well…" she pondered back and forth, looking for an explanation to come to her, that never did.

"Don't mind us, we'll wait as long as you need." Arcade being very sarcastic.

She sighed, and slumped down from a wall. "Very well, take the payment. I'm not rich enough to reach Vegas. "she said, before crawling into a tiny corner between a dirty dumpster and scowling. I was really sad I was unable to pay her off, but I was already stretching my caps thin. With her payment in hand, I had finished collecting the bounties, and returned to the Atomic Wrangler to get the rest of my pay.

Back again at the Wrangler, the mood appeared the same. I was already feeling depressed enough in the remains of this poorly maintained establishment. I'd actually rather be outside than in here, so I swiftly made my way over to Francine to accept my fee.

"So, you're finally done?" she questioned. "Hope you made it through intact this time."

"Cut the jokes." I pleaded. "Here's the last fee." Getting straight to the point.

"Sure." She said, as she fidgeted around in a damaged cash register to gather together my cut.

"Thanks" I said, and promptly flashed out the door, as quick as I had entered.

"We've finished business with the Garrets, and that's great and all, but where are you going to get the rest of the payment?" Arcade questioned me.

"To be honest, I'm not sure." I said befuddled "perhaps we could try the Kings, no other prominent gangs or opportunities I see."

"You're probably right." Arcade trusted my judgment, as we both strode into the Kings building.


	13. Chapter 12

**Part 12: In The Hall Of The King**

The mood was considerably different inside the Kings, compared to how it was outside. People had clean, brown leather suits and combed hair, as well as smiling at talking amongst each other. It was clear the building was damaged, as they are anywhere, but there were signs actual care was taken to the place. The floor was fairly clean, all the litter was in the bin, and the cracked walls had posters and other hang-ups over them, which made the place a breath of particularly pleasing air.

Standing in the corner by a door was a King who stood out amongst the rest. He had an unzipped, black leather suit, a cigarette and spurs on the heels of his shoes. As we entered, he gave us an uneasy grin, and clenched his fists. The door he was by lead to the King, but it was locked and he had the key. We needed to talk him into giving us it.

"Hello, We Nee-"He interrupted me.

"YEAH, SPIT IT OUT." He bellowed.

"Calm down." I said softly. "We need-"I was interrupted again.

"You want the King, don't you, and I got the key. Now turns out, I ain't in a good mood today. And you'll be sucking my boot before I let you through here." He called out.

"Jesus, what have we done to you?" Arcade said, asking what this guy's problem is.

"You come in here and eye me down, like I've got something wrong with me." He grunted

"More like the other way round." I said "We turn to look at you for half a second, and your face already lights up like a firework. It's your problem."

"Well I might have let you in, but now you ain't getting anyway near the King. He don't wanna mix with no scumbag staring freaks." He moaned.

We were about ready to turn around and walk away from this guy, when the door opened. The king emerged from the back room, with his well-built exterior, charming grin and elegant, untarnished white suit, he was intimidating and mesmerising man.

"Oh Pacer, you giving these men trouble?" he spoke with a deep, grainy accent.

"N..No..Boss! Go..go right through…" he said, before skulking and shuffling off.

We followed him through the open door into a room with a big stage, a bar and a lot of tables. He sat down, with his feet on another chair and watched the dancer perform on stage.

"Sorry about that guy. Pacer's got his problems, but he's helpful and good in a fight. If he gives you any more trouble, just come see me. But anyways, what can I do you for?"

"Hello. I'm Michael and this is-" He cut me off.

"Sure, I know Arcade. He and the boys at the fort are on good terms with us, patch us up when we need." He explained.

"Yes, anyway we're looking to get out of here soon, but we need the caps to get to Vegas. Got any jobs?" inquired.

"Getting out of this crappy place huh?" he understood our haste to leave. "Yeah, I getcha, I got a job for you. As you may see, this isn't some perfect tourist attraction. I need you to help restore some order to Freeside. First, did you notice the bodyguards that stand outside the main gate to Freeside? They'll get you through Freeside safe for a fee. One of them, named Otis, is unusually popular, damn near everyone comes by using his service. I want you to hire him, and record anything odd that happens." The King said.

"Sounds alright." I said

"Then take these caps, you'll need them to pay him for his work." As he handed us a bagful of caps. "Come back with some answers, and don't blow this chance."

As we left to do what he wanted, we heard a piercing bark, and a dog swiftly and smoothly came careening through the doorway, leaving us one hell of a sight. Half its body was perfectly normal, furry and dirty, but the other side was all mechanical. It had a clearly visible brain, in a glass container, with wire poking in and out of it. There was rusty gears and moving wheels that replaced three of his legs, leaving him only one natural leg.

"What the?" I said, being unsettled by it's freak appearance.

"Rex!" the King called out, as the dog ran up and licked him. "This here's Rex. Came wandering into Freeside one day, and since then I've took good care of him."

"Don't you think he looks a little, odd?" I stated my opinion.

"Sure he does, but does that make him any less loveable?" he said. "Rex here's the best dog anyone could hope for. Those implants have kept him alive for over a hundred years."

We couldn't take our eyes off the dog, as we slowly backed up towards the door to leave. When we did, we both Approached Otis and got ready to investigate his popularity.


	14. Chapter 13

**Part 13: Questionable Ethics**

Otis was dressed up in crude, makeshift metal armour with a bent and rotten wooden sniper rifle. It was clear that his popularity at protecting people would be unusual, given one look at him.

"Hello there, gentlemen!" he spat out with a rough voice. "You should know how dangerous Freeside is, and that's where I-" I Cut him off to save him some time.

"We know you're a bodyguard, here's your caps, now escort us around safely." Getting straight to the point.

"Certainly, but keep close to me or I cannot guarantee your safety." He said, before leading us around Freeside. When we came close to the Vegas gates, he stopped and turned to us.

"I don't like the look of those guys up ahead, come on, I know an alternate route there." He uttered. We all stepped gingerly around the corner of a building to find four men, who all came running at us. Quick to the draw, Otis aimed his rifle and swiftly fired three rounds, leaving them all dead.

"Interesting, you fired three bullets and took out four guys." Arcade noticed. He seemed to be very good at picking up small things like that.

"Noticed that huh?" he said, being caught off guard. "Yeah…I keenly aimed one of the shots through some soft tissue so it would hit the man behind him."

"Very well" I said. "Thanks for your protection." I said as he slowly walked back to the front gates. Arcade pulled me aside and whispered in my ear.

"I don't know about you, but there's something fishy about more than just how much he fired. Any ideas?"

I looked around, trying to find something to use as evidence against Otis. Looking at the bodies, I noticed they were a little odd, so we both investigated. Arcade pulled out a stethoscope and checked each of the bodies.

"They're Alive!" he shouted. "Their hearts are still beating but they're not moving as well as slowly breathing. Guess they used a drug that lets them stay still. So that's how he's popular, he fakes hits and people think he's great at protecting them."

"Think we should talk to Otis, or go straight back to the King?" he questioned me.

"Well, the more evidence the better I guess. Let's hear Otis first." I said, to which we caught up to Otis to question him on the alive men.

"What, you liked my service so much you want more protection? Well tha-"

"No, we're here to question you on how the men are still alive! I checked their heartbeats and I heard them. You fake hits to make people think you're a good bodyguard, but in reality, your armour and weapon is considerable poor." Arcade truthfully said. After this, Otis appeared noticeably shocked.

"I Don't..fake my hits" he hurried to respond. "Why would I do such a thing?"

"Feel free to come with us, and hear their hearts for yourself." I said. "But regardless, how about we report you to the King? He controls a lot of Freeside, he'd ruin your business for sure. But if you cough up some caps, we might look the other way." I blackmailed him for some extra caps, even though I would go to the King anyway.

After slowly gulping and standing blank-faced for a moment, Otis responded by saying "You can't tell the King this, he'll ruin me! Here, take your fifty caps and these extra hundred as a sign of good will. I promise never to do this again." With a facial expression that made it rather predictable he was lying again.

"Thank you, we'll keep this to ourselves." I said, before we both sneaked straight back to the King to tell him our investigation was over.


	15. Chapter 14

**Part 14: The Devil In Disguise**

Back at the kings, we were lucky enough to avoid Pacer, and went straight to the King.

Turning to us with a look of excitement on our faces, he said "So, you brought back the news I wanted?"

"Sure did" I said. "Turns out, he hires men to act as attackers. When they start attacking us he shoots them, leaving the customer thinking he just saved their lives. We checked the bodies and found they're still alive, heart beating and breathing slowly, but they didn't move which suggests they used some kind of drug to make them act dead. When we confronted him about this, he bribed us not to tell you."

The King almost fell out of his chair laughing, he eventually started coughing because of how much he laughed. After a minute, he turned back to us and said "Can't believe that guy, I'll tell the other members and soon he'll have no business in Freeside. Good job guys, and feel free to keep the bribe."

"That still leaves us roughly two hundred caps short of Vegas…" Arcade moaned, sticking to his hope to leave Freeside as soon as possible. "You got any more jobs?"

"Well, you've proven yourself to be useful" he said and thought to himself for a short time. "Sure I've got a job for you. There's been recent violence in Freeside by some mysterious gang, who've put some of my men in the fort to be healed. This isn't just some normal crazy guy, this is a big group of people who are able to get away with it. I need you to talk to my guys in the fort, and work out who attacked them. Get this done right, and you'll be on your way to Vegas anyday now."

"We'll get right on it" we both said, and soon found ourselves back at the fort again. Stepping into the tent, we heard groaning and saw from the condition of the men that they were beat to hell. They had black eyes, discoloured skin and big wounds that took a sizeable chunk of flesh from them. We really felt we needed to help these people, so we got straight to questioning them.

"Excuse me?" I called out to get one of the men's attention. He slowly rolled over to face us, and with some trouble said "..What?"

"We're here to find out who did this to you." To which the men in the tent all turned to face us.

"It's about damn time." Came a call from an old man behind us. "I'll tell you what I know, but I'm sketchy. I can barely breath, those bastards pummelled me so hard. It was night, and we had just left the Atomic Wrangler after spending a few caps. We ended up in the 'squatter' part of town, when two big guys came and started barking orders at us, asking if we were locals. After only about ten seconds, they got physical and starting beating us up. I only got a quick glance, cause' I was face down in the dirt the whole time, but it looked like they were wearing uniforms. Talk to Wayne over there, he saw more action than I did."

Wayne pushed himself up, took a sip of his water and sat back to say "I may have seen more action, but they almost crippled me, my memory's way sketchier. I'll admit they were better dressed than most Freesiders, but that's about it." He then put his head back down on his mattress and suddenly said "OH Wait! I remember one of them called out a name. L…Lou…Lou Something…..Oh, Lou Tenant, Yeah that's his name."

"Lou Tenant? Wayne, I think you mean Lieutenant, so some military guy?" the old man suggested. Some military guy, do they mean the NCR? I thought to myself, I felt I was going to investigate some more before I jumped to conclusions.

"So, King send you?" Wayne asked.

"Yeah." I responded "And don't worry, we'll sort this all out."

"Sure hope so." The old man said, before lying down on his bunk to rest some more. We left the Fort to go and see the King again to report what we'd heard.

"Back already? My you're good at solving problems" he laughed.

"No, but we found out part of were attacked in the squatter area,the attackers were in uniforms, and one of them was a Lieutenant."

"Oh no, not the NCR. They're causing enough trouble as it is." He appeared noticeably shaken.

"That's what I hope too." I said "The NCR are not bad people. I'm not jumping to conclusions without more evidence"

"Well, the best place you can look is the squatter area if that's where they were attacked. I know the they hang around there. Hopefully you can clear the rumour that they're taking over parts of Freeside.

"I hope so too." I said with a dour mood, and stepped outside to continue my mission. Over in the squatter area of town, a few men were dressed in rough, but clean clothing with the NCR logo stuck on. They had thick, stained beards and appeared camped within an old neglected building. Me and Arcade stepped through the cracked window, because the door was rotten as hell and the handle snapped off with the lightest touch.

"Greetings" came a perky voice. "How may we serve you?"

"I was hoping it'd be the other way around." I asked, "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to assist citizens of the NCR, are you a citizen?" he asked

"What, you mean do I support them, or work for them?" I responded to his vague question.

"Yeah, supporting us, so you should know a lot about the NCR." He answered me.

"I've worked with you at the Mojave outpost, and I'm against the Legion." I replied.

"Well, we aren't going to walk all the way to the Mojave outpost to ensure you're truthful, so how about a quiz?" he suggested.

"Sure, quiz seems fine." I said, and got ready to answer his questions.

"First, who is the most popular NCR president of all time?"

"Well, popularity is debatable." I said sarcastically "But seriously, it's got to be President Tandi"

"Correct!" he said out loud. "Question two, what was the original capital of the NCR?"

I thought deeply for a moment, but couldn't find the answer to his question, this was one important piece of knowledge I kept putting off remembering. "Err, The Hub?" I said uneasily.

"Sorry, but that's not it, so let's move onto question three." He said "So, question three. What is on the flag of the NCR?"

"That's easy." I called out almost immediately "It's a two headed bear."

"Correct!" he once again said loudly. "That's two out of three, but we were looking for people with in-depth knowledge to be considered real citizens. So we can't tell you anymore." He jeered as we stepped out to find out what they knew from elsewhere.


	16. Chapter 15

**Part 15: A Meaty Conclusion**

Back outside, Arcade pulled me aside and said "I'm pretty sure we can get what they know out of the locals. Surely one of themwill know something."

"That's not too bad an idea." I agreed. In a big place like this, rumours can spread like wildfire. We checked out a couple of the wrecked buildings and came across a ghoul sitting in the corner, drinking vodka from a dirty glass. Thankfully he didn't smell like a garbage dump, so we approached him to see if he was aware of what we needed to know.

"Err?" he looked hazily up and was evidently balance, obviously drunk. "What you want, smoothskin?" with a slurred voice.

"Do you know anything about the NCR's recent presence in the area?" I asked.

He slouched over and said "Yeah. Buncha old farts who pilfer all the good clothing, leaving us Freesiders looking scruffy and sick."

"No, no.." Arcade said, dying for an answer. "Do you know what they're doing here? They've got to have a purpose."

"Sure do. They offer all those poor NCR folk food. They give them out a password so they can get free food, while everyone else gets to eat dinner from the garbage. Fair, ain't it?" he groaned

"So they get the poor who like them food, and leave everyone who doesn't support them hungry, as well as beating someof them up?" Arcade said. "That's disgusting.

My fears appeared confirmed. The NCR were responsible for beating up the men in the fort, I'd have to stop this.

"So, what's the password and where do you use it?" Arcade asked

"Oh, I bet that's just what you need to know." He responded, sarcastically "I'll tell you…for a price.

"Look here man." I called out. "We've got-"

"I don't give a damn if you're loaded with a nuclear bomb. Threating me with violence isn't going to work. Besides, streets are dangerous enough as it you'll do is kill me quicker, and let me live a couple more worthless seconds of my life." He ranted.

Arcade shrugged. "Alright." He asked "How much do you want.."

"Think about one hundred caps will do me, get me a slightly less miserable existence." He answered

"Very well." Arcade said, handing over our caps.

"Great. The paswro…. " He almost fell flat out cold because of his drinking. Arcade grabbed for him, and shook him quite violently.

"Stay awake, damn it!" he screamed

"Calm down Arcade. At worst we can drag him back to the fort to wait until he comes back around." I said.

Arcade released his tight grip on the ghoul, and got back to his feet. "Son of a bitch had one hell of a night drinking, he's out cold. Guess we're taking him to the fort." He said, before we slowly hauled his intoxicated body to the fort to get some answers out of him. We quickly dragged him into a tent, but that was about as much help I could be, knowing zilch about helping a drunk person. I was fairly proficient in other forms of medication, but I don't drink, leaving it a rather useless thing to know.

The medical staff put him on some drugs and attached him to some drips, but even they had doubts. Seems the guy drank four times as much as normal, and his insides were bursting with the juice. They said we were lucky we brought him back, because he might not have lived otherwise. It took a couple hours, but the guy just clinged onto live and came back.

"Err" He said the same thing as when we first met him. "What're you want smoothskin?"

Arcade chuckled at his repetition. "Don't you want to know where you are?"

The ghoul took a look around him and saw numerous drugs and drips attached to him. "Hey, you trying to overdose me?" he groaned

"Hey, those 'Overdosers' are keeping you alive. We dragged you off your wasted ass and dragged you back here; you had four times the normal amount that people drink."

"Well shit, how'd you find me?" he asked.

"We asked you a question, and you passed out just as you were about to answer us." Arcade informed him. "Apparently, the NCR hassome secret code for free food."

"Oh, ye-yeah. I think I know that!" He told us. "I overheard two talking to their supporters; they had some abandoned building, just passed the Atomic Wrangler, with two guards standing outside. The password to get in was, err…Hope, yeah I'm pretty sure anyway." He let us know.

"Great, well. Let's go shall we?" Arcade suggested.

"Sure should, let's go" I answered, to which we made it passed the Atomic Wrangler to see the two guards standing outside. We stepped up to the guards to investigate further.


	17. Chapter 16

**Part 16: Hostile Encounters Of The NCR Kind**

"Greetings, good citizen." One of the guards called out.

"…Hi" I responded, surprised by his formal introduction.

"May I please ask what your intention in travelling to here is?" he spoke elevated.

"…Yeah, we're here to." – Arcade interrupted me, and whispered in my ear "We're wearing clean, fully protective clothing. I doubt they'll let us in if we say we're here for the food."

"We're here to…see your commander" I hurried to answer, leaving me seem a little unusual to the guards.

"Hmm, I'm not so sure.." a guard said and brushed his stubble.

"Yes, and we know the password, Hope." I answered, to which he seemed to believe me.

"I Guess if you know the password, please come in." he said, as he fussed around in his trousers to pull out his keys to unlock the door. Eventually he took them out, and unlocked the door, letting us inside the small ruined store.

Inside the building, we saw poor people cueing up with plates. There were big bags of common food like potatoes and carrots, which were handed out to the anxious clientele. Since the guards didn't follow us in to make sure we were telling the truth, we picked up a plate and joined the queue to investigate.A middle aged lady with combed hair and plastic gloves handed out the food, with a smile on her face.

"Hello" she greeted me with a charming voice "What do you need?"

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you in private." I asked

"Oh, well sure. Just let me finish off this queue" she said, as we waited a minute for everyone to receive their meals. She then had someone take over, and invited us into a back room for our conversation.

"Hello, I'm Elizabeth Kieran, what can I do for you?" she questioned us

"We'd like to ask why you only hand out food to the NCR, and not all the poor." I answered her.

"Oh" she looked down. "You want to know about that. Guess the King sent you?"

"Indeed, he did." I answered honestly "And we've also heard that the NCR is beating up those who don't support it."

"My goodness!" she said with a raised voice, and was noticeably shocked. "I haven't heard anything like this, but I'll at least tell you what I know. As you may have noticed, I'm in charge of handing out the food in this kitchen, and originally we sent an envoy to the King to help us with this relief effort, and to help the whole of Freeside. Eventually they returned, and they were beat, had bruised skin, and looked like they had gone through hell. My superiors ordered me to scrap the project because of this, but I continue to hand food out. Since we now get no official backing, we only run on donations from people, meaning we can hand out less food to people. We can only feed supporters of the NCR, because we don't have enough money to support everyone here. But I have no idea who is going around beating up non supporters. Hopefully you can sort this out." She informed us.

"That's quite a story" I said. "We'll get to the king and try to sort this out peacefully."

"I hope you don't mess this up, we don't want a firefight." She said and waved us out, as we returned to the King to inform him of the whole situation.

Back at the Kings, we were immediately ran into by Pacer.

"Hey, I saw you hanging around in that secret NCR kitchen, whatever that woman in there told you is a lie. That dirt bag "Envoy" was more like a spy group, that wasn't tough enough to last in Freeside. You better not tell the King the worthless info she told you." He ranted

"Why should we listen to you?" Arcade butted in. "You've gave us nothing but trouble, since the second we saw you."

"You want to tell the King the truth? Trust me, it'll cause more troubles than it's worth. Don't tell him anything." He urged us.

"Sorry man, don't see why we should do anything for you after how you treated us." I swiftly reminded him of his past reckless behaviour to us. "We're telling the King."

"Fine!" he slammed his foot on the ground in frustration. "Tell the King, see the shitstorm that he'll get Freeside into. Now I've got business to attend to" he said, as he stormed out the building in fury. We stepped up the King, with Rex in his arms, hugging him.

"Oh, you're finally back. Tell me you've got all the answers." He asked.

"We sure do." I answered "they've been handing out food to the NCR supporters only, leaving the rest on Freeside to starve, and one of them apparently beats up non supporters, like your men in the fort. We spoke the leader running it, and she said that she sent out an envoy to see you, so you could help get the relief to everywhere in Freeside. But they returned beaten and bruised, so her superiors ordered her to cancel the operation. She still hands out food, but without official backing, they can only hand out to NCR supporters."

"Well, that's quite a story." The King appeared shocked. "I never received any envoy from them, so I wonder who did that to them."

"Well." I said "maybe-" just then, a king burst into the room and ran like a bat out of hell to us. He had a big red face like he had ran for miles.

"King….thhe… , oh god. There's a shootout between Pacer and the NCR!" he struggled to say.

The King's face lit up like an inferno. "QUICK, GO DEFUSE THE SITUATION." He shouted to us, as we dashed it out the door with the king who delivered the news to stop the fire fight.


	18. Chapter 17

**Part 17: Into The Frying Pan**

Over at the scene of the shootout, we saw some terrible things. King members lay dead, bullets riddled their corpses as well as the walls, and everything was drenched in blood. We bobbed and dived and just narrowly averted getting massacred from the heap of fire coming our way. We made our way over to an old building, where Pacer was sitting crying.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, TOOK YOUR SWEET TIME." He stuttered, looking intensely worried.

"Sheesh, we could have not came." I reminded him "Be thankful we're saving your sorry ass.

He looked angry and me, and shuffled off to safety now that we had arrived. I asked the Kings behind cover to stop shooting, because I was going to walk to the NCR, and hopefully resolve the situation peacefully, without getting my corpse perforated with lead. They agreed, and I left them my weapon, placed my hands on my head, and slowly moved out of cover. It only took a second of seeing over thirty guns pointing at me, for me to start shitting myself, but luckily I made it across about halfway safely, seems they were actually going to let me be peaceful. I got past the soldiers, and was shown into a small shelter they had temporarily set up. Inside was Elizabeth and a lot of NCR guards. I sat down to hopefully stop the fight.

"Oh god…" Elizabeth covered her face with her hand and shook. "Why did it have to come to this…" she asked me.

"All I did was tell the King exactly what you told me. Only seconds later we hear news of the fire fight, honestly, we never meant for this." I responded "so how did this all start?"

"Well, a few NCR guards were hanging around, when 'Pacer' started shooting at us. We fired back and brought more support, but then more Kings joined in and shot at us. They called me in, incase you came to resolve this peacefully." She said.

"Jeez, Pacer is that crazy?" I said.

"Not just him, the whole of the Kings seem to be murderers. Look at what they did to our Envoy. They're nothing but thugs." She ranted.

"Funny thing. We went to the King and he had no knowledge of an envoy. Somebody else attacked them, and I would assume rumours got back to say it was the Kings. I've met them, and they are perfectly respectable people, other than Pacer." I informed her on the truth.

"Really?" she asked "I'll get the commanders to call of the hostilities if you can promise that the King deals with Pacer somehow. If this firefight was just his doing, we'll call peace with them."

"Ok, just let me get back to him. I'm sure he'll deal with Pacer." I said, and swiftly made it back to the King to get this situation over asap. He turned to me with his hands covering his mouth.

"Oh please, tell me this is over." He begged.

"Not quite." I unfortunately said. "They'll stop this firefight, if you deal with Pacer. He caused this shootout."

The King took a few steps backwards and slumped into his chair. He grabbed Rex and hugged him tight.

"…Alright" he said. "I can't let a king member die anyday. Tell them to call off the hostilities. I'll deal with him."

I quickly left and made it back over the firing line to Elizabeth, to get the shootout over with.

"Ah, back already. I do hope the King wants this over peacefully." She said

"Indeed so. He wants this situation over with, and he'll deal with Pacer in some way."

"That's brilliant news!" she exclaimed. "Please give me a moment." To which she stepped up, and told the commander to stand down. The kings still behind cover fled back, and the NCR got to dealing with the corpses. Before I went, I had to clear some things with Elizabeth.

"Hey, does this mean that you're still hostile towards the Kings?" I asked

"Well.." she struggled to answer me. "We're…very suspicious of their activity, and we'll monitor it a while before we decide to let them off the hook. After all, both sides have resulted in roughly 10 dead. My superiors are pretty pissed about this, they might even shut me down from giving out food." She truthfully said, and shuffled off sadly. I returned to the King to give him news that the situation was resolved.


	19. Chapter 18

**Part 18: A Favour From Above**

I started to take Arcade's hope as my own, getting out of Freeside as soon as possible. All Freeside's full of is hell and tension. I planned on making this my last visit to the King, and finally get to Vegas, since I was pretty close to the two thousand cap requirement. I approached the King, to see a look of hope on his face.

"I have faith in your abilities" he said. "And you got my boys out of the line of fire. It's not often I do something like this, but I more than certainly owe you a favour. I'll allow you one favour for all your service to me."

"Oh, well what favours could you do me?" I asked

"Hmm" he considered deeply for a moment. "I can see three possible things. I can let you become an honorary king member, I could provide you with one thousand caps, or I could see if I can get you a fake passport to get into Vegas for free."

Those were some…very good offers. I took Arcade to the corner of the room to discuss it with him in private.

"Hey, what do you think?" I asked him about what we should choose.

"Yeah, they're all pretty good offers. We obviously don't want to become a King, since we aren't about to hang around Freeside anytime. We could go for the cash if we want to get to Vegas, and we can get the Passports if you want to stay there, if we ever happen to fall below two thousand." He responded with his opinions.

"Sounds like the money is our best option." I suggested" buy us an apartment and store our stuff there; we're carrying a crazy amount of stuff."

Arcade nodded, so we went back to the King to ask for the money.

"We'll take the cash." I asked.

"Certainly." He said, and escorted us up a set of stairs within the building, to a room overflowing with caps. There must have been at least five thousand.

"Holy shit." Arcade and I said in unison. "What the hell are you doing sitting on a fortune?"

He chuckled slightly. Yeah, it may be a fortune, but it's not all mine. This is every single member's supply of money, we just store it here." He delivered the excitement crushing truth. But still, about a quarter of it is mine. So dig in and take a thousand."

I jumped in, and rolled around in it as if I was rich, picking up caps as I went. After a few minutes, we had gathered the sum together, and waved to the King as we left. Standing infront of us was the heavenly and metallic rusty gates between hell and heaven. We didn't take our sweet time in getting to the gate.

"Halt." Said one of the many robots standing around the gate to defend it. "Submit to a credit check for entry into Vegas."

"Certainly." As we handed out a bag for it to count. Surprisingly, it scanned the money, and only took about a minute for it to be counted. We stepped past the robots, and were almost touching the door, when a poorly dressed man came running to us. It was the same guy who had the sledgehammer when I was attacked, and got stuck in the metal fencing. This time he held up a makeshift mace, and his face was running with blood. I drew up my rifle, but the bot knocked it out of my hands, and blasted him with a laser. He fell down, as the bots pelted him with their high temperature lasers, leaving him a pile of burned ash by the end. I grabbed my gun off the ground and turned to the robot.

"HEY!" I shouted at it. "What the hell was that for?"

"We have been dispatched for your protection. Please allow us to handle all conflict, as that is our assigned task." It said

"Oh well, he had no chance anyway." Arcade reminded me, as we both stepped through the shiny steel gate to our future.


	20. Chapter 19

**Part 19: Vegas**

For a second time, I stepped through a door and became dazzled before the tremendous display of lights. Through my still hazy eyes, I looked upon the glamorous city of Vegas. Respectful, well dressed citizens sat and chatted orderly, the security bots roamed the streets and kept the city incredibly secure, but the almost sky-scraping sized casinos stood and stole the show. One building called the Lucky 38 could be seen for miles, even from Goodsprings. It wasn't public though, only the security bots and Mr. House, the leader of the city are allowed inside. After the amazing sight and sounds had settled in, my enthusiasm went crazy, I could gamble, I could live in luxury, I could even get a job in the casinos.

"Oh, my god." Arcade mouthed, just as any visitor to Vegas does.

"I know. What should we do first?"

"I think we should check out the casinos. We've got The Tops, the Ultra-luxe and Gomorrah, where you do want to go first?"

Looking in front of me, three giant casinos, covered in lights and paint dazzled the sky and streets. The closest was the Tops, so I decided that was the best idea. We stepped through the casino's colossal metal doors, and came face to face with a guard.

"Hey." He said smoothly. "Sorry to bother you, but we're going to need your weapons if you want to enjoy our casino. Just hand them over, and we'll get this over nice and easy."

"Ok, but where are you taking them?"

"Don't worry yourself; we keep them upstairs in our safe. They're as safe as our money, which is to say, very safe." He explained.

"Oh, very well." I said and handed over my weapons. I can understand why they don't want weapons inside their casinos. I took a good look around inside and saw people laughing, gambling and drinking at a bar. Walking along the floor, I noticed in the corner was a man dressed in a chequered suit. Where does that ring a bell? I suddenly realised and my jaw none figuratively hit the floor. I marched up to him, and saw him turn to me, with his face suddenly gaping wide. His body was shaking by the time I got close, and four burly men in black suit came from corners to stand aside him.

" .oou.." he muttered.

"Indeed, you are seeing me alive." I said smugly.

His face changed less from surprise into charismatic. "Well, interesting to see how resilient you are." He laughed.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you now." I said sharply

"One reason?" he laughed "How about four. They're called bodyguards, and every single one of them in packing heat; five if you include me. And with what little peashooter you might have smuggled past the guards over there, you stand no chance."

His convincing argument quickly made me reconsider my immediate rage to kill this guy. I was going to finish him off some other way.

"So, how'd you find me?" he was very smug.

"Met one of your buddies, gave me this." And handed him his lighter. He cracked up and leaned against the wall behind him, examining the lighter.

"Ah shit. How could I forget this little thing? hope you murdered those bastards.

"Opposite, actually. They were completely surrounded by NCR troops, and I managed to get the NCR to let them walk away." I replied

His enthusiasm dropped. "Man, you don't have to talk your way out of stuff; kill people" he suggested.

"No. you just gave me a hell of a good reason not to" seeing through his subtle dialog.

"Damn bastard. Well hey, no point in being angry at me any longer? How about you come with me up to the presidential sweet and we relax in luxury?" he suggested.

It wasn't my biggest hope to hang out with the guy that tried to kill me, but I reluctantly agreed to see if I could kill him in his room privately. "Sure." I said as we took the most awkward elevator ever to his room.


	21. Chapter 20

**Part 20: A Date With Destiny**

As soon as the doors opened, I dashed out to be blown away with the glamorous life that Benny lived. There was a clean carpet full of interesting patterns, a personal bar and pool table, painted and postered walls in perfect condition, and an air conditioner, keeping the place nice and cool; for a first impression, this was godly.

"In admiration?" Benny smirked.

"Err, yeah. You live up here?" I surprised myself, actually talking to him.

"Hell yes!" he grinned. "Why wouldn't I live in luxury like this?"

"How can you afford all of it, I've never seen a place in a condition like this" I explained.

"Oh, I'm with you" he understood my confusion. "I'm the Top's Chairman."

"Nice." I said, impressed by his accomplishments. It was around this point I remembered I needed to stop being friendly, and murder this bastard. I asked for a tour and was lead from one astonishingly untouched room to the next, each one being spotless and well maintained. Taking a good look around, I saw no cameras, but I was unsure if they were hidden anywhere.

"And here's your room." He said, as he whisked me into a guest room, with an actual bed. Can't even remember the last time I had one, so I was incredibly pleased at the prospect. I jumped on it and lay back on the heavenly pillows, making me feel weightless and that my problems were gone. Arcade had a bed to the side of me, and he had just the same reaction to the snug and soft blankets surrounding him.

Over the next few hours, the three of us relaxed in Benny's luxury apartment, drinking, chatting and even swimming in his mini pool. I have to say, it was a suprisingly enjoyable experience, even with a cruel murderer. Eventually it got late, and looking upwards through the sky roof at the stars filled me with a sense of wonder, at their astounding beauty. Soon after we returned to our rooms to get some well needed shuteye, but I had other plans.

I had smuggled a kitchen knife from behind the bar into my room, and after a few hours had passed, to ensure he was well asleep, I stepped gingerly through the hallway, trying not the creak the floorboards. Inch by inch, I pushed the door to see Benny in a deep slumber. I returned back to my room to talk to Arcade first.

"Hey Arcade." I whispered into his ear

"Urgh…What?" he asked

"I'm about to finish Benny, get out of the Casino in case things go wrong. If they do, I don't want you dying with me."

"Oh shit." He said, and creeped to the Elevator. As the doors closed he whispered "Good luck!"

Back down the hallway I went, quivering horribly and trembling in my very shoes, at any moment he could wake up, at any moment I could make a sound, and at any moment, his guards could come up and blow my face off. Back to the door, and managed to get by without making any sound. Inch by inch with the door again, Benny hadn't moved. I was drenched in sweat by the time I was halfway, and drowning in it when I was just above him.

Fearing my shaking would wake him, I slashed the knife straight through his neck, to which he woke and fumbled around on the floor. It was horrible to watch, but also quite gratifying to see him suffer. He tried to speak, but his slashed neck left anything come out become a creaky mess of groans. Only about a minute later, he plummeted face down into the carpet, surrounded by his blood. it soaked the carpet awfully, reaching over a wide area, even soaking my clothing; I needed a change of clothing to walk out of here without raising suspicion.

Looking through the room, to loot some of the fancy stuff before I left, I picked up Benny's engraved pistol. It was covered in precious jewels, with the words "Maria" carved down the barrel. I took it and also the platinum chip which was hidden under the bed. Finally, I took a couple of other fancy items from the room, quickly left and switched clothing, and then took the elevator down to get the hell of the casino.


	22. Chapter 21

**Part 21: A Message From Above**

Down at the main floor of the Casino, things we're finishing up. Gamblers packed their things and stopped gambling, the staff left to get their pay and rest, and the lights above started to turn off. Surprisingly, seems nobody had noticed what I did; no guards stood waiting to shoot me, but they'd find out eventually. I went to the Vault to get my trusty rifle, and left the casino.

Just outside the Tops, a robot came barrelling towards me on its monowheel. It was Victor!

"Well howdy partner, good to see you again!" it repeated like before.

"Yeah, it's good to see you." I said "How're things going?"

"Oh you know. Glad to be back with the Boss. Speaking of which, The boss wanted to see you." He informed me

"…What?" surprised that Mr. House wanted to see me. Nobody had come out of the Lucky 38 alive for years. "What does he want?" I asked.

"Sounds like he's after that Platinum chip. Said to come meet you, since he thought you might still have it.

"Well, I lost it, but got it back when I went in there." I told him.

"Great! Boss sure will want to talk to you. Follow me" he said, and escorted me to the Lucky 38's Towering steel door.

"Woah, hold it there partner." He said, peering over my shoulder to see Arcade following me. "Boss only wants to see you, sorry but you'll have to keep your friend in the lobby."

"Err, sure." I replied, and entered the enormous structure. Inside, it appeared as any other casino, with roulette and blackjack tables, and slot machines; but the place was desolate. The atmosphere was silent, with only a slight drone coming from Victor's engine. He wheeled forward and opened the Elevator. "Alright, off to the penthouse floor with you." He said, as I stepped into the elevator and waved off Arcade. As the door opened, I looked forward over a railing and saw a huge part of the Mojave, this was easily the tallest building for miles around. Victor escorted me off to a large monitor, with a rats nest of wires poking up into the ceiling, and two speakers either side of it. After a moment of admiring the technology, a small noise of feedback came from the speakers, and with a zap of light, an image depicting Mr. House appeared onscreen.

"So, glad to finally meet you." Came a low tone from the speakers.

"Well, Err hello there." I said slowly, unsure how to talk to a computer.

"Indeed greetings, but we have business to attend to. I believe you are currently in possession of the platinum chip?" he asked

"Yeah, but it wasn't to you. I was supposed to leave it in some old building." I replied.

"Correct. I made sure the delivery was to somewhere desolate. If I had asked for it to be delivered to the Strip, specifically the Lucky 38, people would realise the importance of it."

"Well, what's so important about it? It's just a chip" I asked.

It sounded as if I could hear him muttering in frustration. "How can I put this, the chip is a computer drive shaped like a chip for numerous reasons, it's inconspicuous, it's technologically advanced, but we're losing the focus; give me the chip."

"Why should I give you the chip?" I questioned.

"Did you not remember the original freighting fee? One thousand credits was the agreed upon price." He said, tempting me with the thousand caps that made me take the job

"Hmm, I could just keep this." I suggested

"Give me one use you'd use it for. For Christ's sake, you didn't even know what it was. Trust me, yes it is valuable which is why I paid one thousand caps for its delivery, but who else do you know will pay you more for a tiny, seemingly insignificant chip?" he reminded me that nobody else would understand it.

"Could keep it as a collectable." I said, to which an overwhelming large sigh came through the speakers.

"Ok, I can see why a tiny chip that's easy to lose is certainly better than a thousand caps you can spend on whatever you want." He said cynically.

"You want this chip that bad huh…..I'll hear you out a little more." To which a fairly long silence came from the speakers, like he was in shock at my decision to keep the chip.

"Delivery of the platinum chip is non-negotiable. And if you look around you, you'll see many of the strip's own security bots. If you've had the unfortunate chance to witness them in a firefight, you'll know they always win. They don't die to headshots or bleed, and the only way to kill them is to either destroy the motherboard, buried deep under four feet of steel in the chest, or sever the limbs from it; again, through thick steel. One shot of the robot's lasers will singe flesh and cause major bleeding, making you drop your weapon and fall in tremendous pain. Reminding me, robots don't feel pain and are considerably tougher.

"That's….not a bad argument" I mumbled. Not wanting to see how pathetic my gun is against steel.

"But one question; why do you need the Chip so badly?"

"Simple. It contains data relevant to upgrading the Lucky 38's advanced defence system, as well as the Mark two operating system. The bots you see on the street are all running on the mark one operating system, which limits their effectiveness if combat, even if they are already immensely powerful. They have onboard auto repair systems, as well as grenade and rocket launching weapons that unfortunately they cannot use. The chip has the relevant drivers needed to allow them access, which would make them virtually undefeatable.

"Ok, I understand that, but what about the Lucky 38's Advanced Defence system?" I asked.

"Ah yes, about that. You've probably noticed that the Strip is considerably better preserved than its surroundings. Installed on the top of this building are high intensity lasers that allow me to shoot down any incoming rockets. On the day of the Great War, seventy seven nuclear missiles were directed towards Nevada and of course, to here. I was forced to make do with buggy software, as I had ordered the chip to be delivered early on the morning of the war. Without the upgrade to my lasers, and with missiles incoming, I managed to take out seventy of the nuclear warheads, leaving the Mojave as it is today, in a much better state than it would have been if they were to have hit. If that chip was delivered just twenty hours earlier, I would have been able to destroy all the warheads."

"Oh man. You ordered that chip almost two hundred years ago? Wait, doesn't that mean you're over two hundred years old?"

"Good to see you can pay attention. Indeed, I am not a computer program but a human still alive, thanks to my cryogenically sealed container, deep within the confines of this building. I realised that the Great War was about to arrive, and sealed myself into cryostatis so that I could live for all these years, since it would be almost thirty years before I ever saw anyone outside in the radioactive wasteland.

"Well why can't I come and see you?" I asked.

"Because, if you did, you'd find my withering husk of a body. Two hundred years doesn't leave me in a state to pop out of my machine and have a chat with you. This machine is the only thing keeping my alive. For over two hundred years, nothing has entered or left this cryostatis container. If I was to open it, I'd within seconds be exposed to hundreds of toxins and pollutants in the air that you've been exposed to for many years. I'd also be unable to support my own weight. In Short, I don't plan on leaving." He explained

"Well, that was an enlightened conversation" I said, and finally inserted the chip into the slot in front of me. Mr House let out a relaxing sigh, and I was unsure what he was doing. But quite soon, he came back to me.

"I have just sent the upgrade to all the Securitons within range of my emitters, and of course, upgraded this buildings defence system. Vegas is now nearly impenetrable against any incoming attacks, and I can guarantee that nobody can overtake Vegas. I'm sure you'll want to know exactly how the upgrade will affect the future of Vegas, so please take the elevator to the basement." He said, and flashed off, leaving the screen blank. I returned to the elevator and took it straight basement to see how the upgrade would change Vegas forever.


	23. Chapter 22

**Part 22: The House Always Wins**

Down in the basement, I emerged to see a rusty, metal storage room, in obvious need of repair. A large forcefield in front of me separated me from the rest of the room, on my side were a few chairs and ammunition in a box, on the other were two robots standing opposite each other. I took a seat and watched the lights flash on. A monitor descended from the ceiling with Mr. House on it.

"As you can see, the mark one operating system provides the robots access to the X-25 Gatling lasers, and the nine millimetre submachine gun." To which the robots demonstrated their normal weapons. "However, with the mark two operating system, they are now able to access their M-235 Missile Launcher, rapid fire G-28 Grenade launching system, and interior repair and rerouting system. " To which the robots faces changed from the usual image of a police officer, to an army man, smoking a cigar. The robots both turned, and utterly destroyed each other with their new weapons. Rockets flew, metal scraps exploded, and the area they were in became a wreck of twisted, smoking metal. It was quite a sight, and I could feel the heat from the explosions, with the force field saving me from taking a mountain of shrapnel to the face.

"This upgrade increases each unit's combat effectiveness by two hundred and thirty five percent." House said, to which I could understand easily. I returned to the elevator and wondered just how much I had changed Vegas. Now the securitrons were basically unstoppable soldiers that didn't feel pain, hunger or thirst.

Back upstairs in the penthouse, I returned back to the monitor, where Mr. House flashed onscreen again.

"Interesting display, wouldn't you agree?" he asked me.

"Well, it sure was!" I said. "But I'm a little concerted they are too powerful."

"You seem to be missing the point. With this upgrade, Vegas finally has robots worthy of defending it. No longer do we face the threat of the Legion taking the city" he said.

"Well, how are people going to react?" I asked

"Funny you should ask. They seem to be causing quite a stir down on the strip, just because of the new face they show. Can't imagine how they'll react to seeing the new weapons in action."

"Well, I guess I'm done here." I said, and walked away.

"Slow down, what's the rush?" came from the speakers.

"What now?" I said, slightly annoyed.

"I can see you are quite a capable person, so I have another job for you."

"Alright, go on…" I replied, intrigued by what he might have for me.

"Very well. There is hardware in only two places on earth, capable of reading the data contained on the platinum chip. One located here, and unfortunately one is in the Legion's camp by Hoover Dam."

"Woah,hold it right there. I haven't been planning to visit those murderers anytime soon." I reminded him of my stance towards them.

"I expected as much from a suggestion like that. Therefore, I will throw in three thousand caps, upon completion. I will also provide you access to this casino's luxury suite, as long as you continue to work for Me." giving me an offer I couldn't refuse.

"As soon as I get there, they'll tear me apart!" I told him.

"You'd indeed be right that they are savages, if you were any other person. However they too have noticed your skills. I guarantee they'll provide safe passage for you to Caesar, if you don't cause trouble for them."

"But what about Arcade? He despises them." I asked.

"Is it not obvious enough? Don't take him with you. There's no doubt he'll start a fight and you'll end up dead."

"Alright…" I grudgingly agreed, but what do I do there?

"I prefer to leave surprises." He joked. "Certainly what you find there will be shocking, but I'll provide you with the basic information. At the fort, you'll likely be instructed by Caesar to gain access to the hidden bunker underneath it. It bears the mark of the lucky 38 on its steel door. Inside, you'll have to place the chip into a large panel in a control room, again, it'll become obvious when you arrive there.

"Alright, it'll take a few days, but I'll go there." I said, and moseyed out to achieve my job.

"Hold up." He signalled he still had something to say. "It's likely that they'll confiscate the Chip and your weaponry when you arrive. Don't panic, it'll get back to you." He said, as the monitor flickered off. I went up the staircase and stared off into the horizon, as the tower provided an excellent view of at least five miles. The sun glimmered and reflected off my glasses, and filled the building with light. I pulled out my Snowglobe and pondered what it was doing in pristine condition in that murky graveyard. I heard a noise, like a shriek from behind me, and I turned to see another robot, with the image of a stereotypical sixties girl on the monitor.

"Oooohh." She called out. "You've got a snow globe?"

"Well. Obviously." I remarked, unsure as to what she was so excited about.

"Mr. House pays one thousand caps for those! It's so rare to find them in pristine condition." She was in awe of it, and scanned every inch of it with here robotic glaze. "Are you selling it?"

"For a thousand caps, I can't refuse." And with my agreement, she escorted me back to collect the pay for it. We went back to the terminal, and the screen flickered on yet again.

"Have you already achieved your goal? Might I ask, what matter of sorcery you used to do it without even leaving the building?" he said sarcastically.

"Of course I haven't Captain Obvious, but one of your robots suggested you pay well for these things. And pulled out the Snowglobe.

"Good Heavens! Another one for my collection. Might I ask where you purchased it?"

"Purchased it?" I queried "I found it in the middle of a graveyard, just besides Goodsprings."

"That's very surprising. In a post apocalyptic environment, a fragile glass object is one of the few things you'd expect to see survive. I imagined for fifty years nobody would find another one. If you are willing to hand it in, I guarantee I'll stick by my original cap offer." He said in surprise and enthusiasm.

"Certainly" I said, and placed it down on a bench in a room to the side, where other snow globes stood and glistened in the sunlight. I could truly tell the man was passionate about his collection, and I wondered to myself just where he had such a huge resource of cash from. I was flooded in caps from everything he had given me so far.

Finally, I departed, and left a few thousand caps in the new suite he had given me for working for him, which was a welcome sight. Just like Benny's suite, it had all the luxuries one could imagine; even with the remnants of nuclear war surrounding me, it was clear the people of Vegas lived in luxury and safety. Maybe I would retire here after I'd finished my job; I certainly had enough cash to get along here. I could also leave my gear here, rather than have to haul it off to a merchant like I used to. However, I had a job to fulfil, so after admiring my new room, I left the building and met up with Arcade outside, and we walked slowly down the shiny neon lighted flooring before us.


	24. Chapter 23

**Part 23: A Glum Situation**

With our gear packed, and a clear goal ahead of us, we were both In high spirit. We both despised the Legion, and saw fit to weaken them however possible. House seemed the perfect leader to rule the new world, with his vast wealth and supplies. Helping him out would ensure that he could keep Vegas prosperous, and expand outwards to reclaim and repair Freeside, and even further out. We stepped down the glowing neon steps of the Lucky 38, but things soon became dark, and our situations both looked grim. In the dark, piercing city, with only the street lamps providing a source of visibility, an armada of what looked like an army descended upon us. Infront of us we saw a gang of the Top's casinos guards, brandishing their impressive, although frighteningly powerful weapons for us to gaze upon. It seemed as if my luck had run out, and karma had come to force his streak of pain and agony upon us.

Stepping out from the middle of the group was a Top's chairman. He was a disgustingly obese and ugly man; almost painful to look at. He had custom made clothing, tailored just for his size, with his belt barely taking the strain of his truck-like muscles. He was already panting by the time he reached us.

"Nobody escapes the Tops." He said, and struggled into his pocket for an asthma inhaler. I could tell this guy never made public appearances, and only handled the business side of things. "You two are coming with us…we'll make you pay."

The men approached us with their weapons out, and began to move us toward the Tops at gunpoint. Arcade turned to me with a look of discomfort across his face; it was clear he was as scared as me that this was the end of us. Suddenly, from behind us. A mysterious voice called out. "I suggest you drop your weapons immediately, unless you've always wished to be burned with high calibre lasers."

Turning around to get a look at what the noise was, I breathed a sigh of relief and ease. House's Robot army had swept in behind us, and their weapons were set to fire. They easily outnumbered the Top's guards.

The chairman's face turned pale and white in a flash. He lost his breath, and his chest was pounding with fear. He motioned backwards, and walked away, looking like a blunder. Without even noticing, the once powerful and threatening looking guards about to pound us with lead, had disappeared. I turned around, and one of the Strip bots zoomed towards me on his monowheel.

"Well, It appears we may have a problem." Came House's voice. He appeared to be able to talk through any of them.

"Let me just say thank you for saving my ass." I said cheerfully, but turned to fear again "But they want to kill me now. I can barely step foot inside the strip without having a personal army against me." Informing him of the likelihood that now my life was threatened.

"Indeed. I suspected something like this would occur. Whenever you enter Vegas, I will personally send my Robots in to protect you. And I'll make sure nobody follows you to kill you out of sight." He said to make my worries vanish.

"Alright, if you're sure you can." I offhandedly said.

"Of course I can." He snapped at me. "The only reason that they even exist here is due to my approval. I can force them to do whatever I want, and they know that I am far more well-armed and wealthy then them." Reminding me of his power and authority here in the strip.

The robot that he was in control of returned to its usual spot on the strip, and the others followed suit. The entirety of the strip's inhabitants looked upon the pair of us. Whether in fear of having the support of Mr. House, or of shock at the fact we were almost murdered, I am unsure. With a feeling of unease in our chests, we didn't feel to safe on the strip, and we quickly departed to go and complete House's wish. We knew now we needed to stay on good terms with him, as his wealth and power would come in extremely helpful.


	25. Chapter 24

**Part 24: Brothers In Arms**

Back in the slums of Freeside, we had a fair amount of freedom to do whatever we needed. It would take almost a week of constant moving South East just to reach the Legion's camp, so until then, we could do anything really, as long as we kept moving in that direction. While we were walking to get out of Freeside, we heard one the hired criers advertising a store called "Mick And Ralph's Storage Store". We went up and asked him about it, and he said they were excellent at repairwork, and since we had a pair of night vision goggles in need of repair, we headed straight for the store, in the direction that he gave us.

Inside the store, we found an assortment of containers, wall hangers and benches, overflowing with various junk. They were all full of raw materials, scrap metal, spare parts. Just the kind of stuff you'd need to repair things, and expect to see. Over by the back of the store was a man with has back to us, fiddling around with something on a workbench, probably busy repairing. As the door slammed shut behind us, the man suddenly turned to us with a weapon drawn, and moved slowly towards us. I kept my finger firmly on my trigger in case this guy was going to open fire.

"Itchy trigger finger, huh?" he asked. "I just came over to show you this gun I just finished repairing."

"Christ, what did we need the dramatics for then? The way you were acting, I was about to have blown your head clean off." I retorted. This guys "Acting" almost had us open fire on him.

"Maybe, if it wasn't for my partner Ralph behind you." He replied.

We turned around to see Ralph, brandishing a laser Gatling gun. Jesus, it had modifications and everything; a scope, laser recycler, and even a custom firing chamber. It was a good thing I made the right call.

"Well, hello there. Nice weapon." I said awkwardly.

"Indeed, it's a beauty, isn't it?" He replied. I was still in shock of how quickly and painfully he could end my life with the pull of the trigger. "Yeah, that's Overkill."

"Yeah, I guess so, good for intimidation value." He chuckled, and heaved it back into a locked safe behind him and spun the combination lock.

"That thing must weigh a fucking ton." Arcade said with a slanted jaw. He was mesmerised by it. Whether through its clean, polished and modified look, or because of its sheer power, I couldn't tell.

"Yeah, but we should get down to business. Name's Ralph." He said introducing himself, like he hadn't already. A badass by the looks of it, showing off his incredible firepower. His brother wasn't too bad either. He had a modified hunting rifle, like mine, but it was clean and polished with a scope, laser sight and an extended clip. These guys must have had an armoury underneath them.

"So, you offers repairs?" I asked, interested in their services.

"Repairs, Weapon sales, the works." Mick answered me, telling us they were proficient in repair work and selling weapons. I could probably also buy a couple mods from them, and I wasn't sure how long my old rifle had left in her. Reliable, but with more duct tape than wood, I was just delaying the inevitable.

"Could you have a look at my Rifle?" I asked and handed it to him. He looked down and pulled a confused facial expression.

"Is this a joke?" he laughed. "Where the fuck have you kept this, up your ass?" I understood his sarcasm. It really did look like I'd kept it up my ass.

"No, but I get that it's a beat up piece of shit. It's been incredibly reliable so far, can take out a radroach from three hundred meters away. I just don't know how long she's got left in her. Don't need it failing on me at a critical moment." I said.

"We'll almost certainly have to get you a new gun. We've got the same model in stock. I can transfer your scope over, but that's about it. You've been lugging around a bunch of duct tape so far. You might just be in time. This thing looks like it'll explode if you so much as nudge it." Informing me of the condition it was in.

"Thought as much. How much will it run me back?" asking for a price estimation. I had thousands of caps between me and Arcade, courtesy of House, but I still needed to know.

"The Model you've got is a .32 Calibre Colt Rangemaster. These babies are accurate to five hundred yards, are fully customisable, next to Recoil free, and tough as steel. Your gun must have been good back in the days. They truly are some of the strongest rifles I've ever seen. It'll run you back at least eight hundred caps." He went all techno babble on me. I understood most of it though; I was good at repair work myself.

"Yeah, I can do that. Can I get an ammo pouch, flashlight, and a laser scope on there?" I asked, wondering if I could get any extra features included.

"You're really going all out?" he asked. "That'll be incredibly expensive, but I can do that for one thousand caps for everything."

"Sounds good." I answered, and handed over my caps to them. It was a hell of a lot, but I needed it more than ever now.

"This could take a while, about thirty minutes, so feel free to read some of the magazines we've got over there." He said and pointed to a corner with a desk, and copies of pre-war magazines. He walked off to go and get my request finished and came back on time. He handed me a beauty of a creation. It was just as I asked. This thing was polished, and shined so much I could almost see my own face on the rifle butt.

"Jesus you did an amazing job, thank you." I said, still in shock of how this thing looked.

"No problem, and have one of these, on the house." And handed me a box of Armour Piercing ammo. That would come in really handy if I got into trouble with armoured thugs. I waved them off and started pushing open the door, before Arcade suddenly snapped and remembered something.

"Didn't you need your Night vision goggles fixed as well?" he questioned me.

"Oh shit. Yeah I do, shit you just saved us both getting fucked in the dark." I responded and laughed. Without these working, I'd see about as well through the darkness as I could through a wall.

"Something else you needed?" Ralph asked, wondering why I had come back inside.

"Yeah, I need you to look at these for me" I said, and handed him my busted Night-Vision Goggles.

"Well, at least you haven't kept this up your ass; you just need new batteries, and a repaired battery pack. I can handle that for Fifty caps." He told me.

"Sure I can do that." And handed him the paltry sum of Fifty caps, that wasn't at all a bad price for something so crucial. He came back after only about five minutes.

"Here you go." He said, and passed me the Goggles. "They work great; I'd imagine up to about four hundred meters out you can see clearly. New batteries already in there, and an extra pack for when you need them." He was really generous, giving out free stuff with every sale, but I imagined that they don't see many sales in Freeside, so making customers happy was a smart idea.

"Thank you so much, I'll surely visit again someday" I said and waved at the pair, before walking outside to continue our journey.


	26. Chapter 25

**Part 25: A Wasteland Journey**

Back outside, we took one last good luck at Freeside just to see it for the last time in a while, even though all my memories of it are pain and suffering. We quickly departed through the East gate and felt a lot safer. With nothing around us for a long distance, any attacker would have to charge straight at us. So with that feeling in our chests, we headed in the general direction of Cottonwood cove; the way into Caesar's camp.

"Hey Michael." Arcade said, looking worried.

"What?" I asked him.

"I'm not certain that joining you was a good idea. We've only managed to jump into extreme danger every step of the way. And now, the Tops want to murder me. What do you think?" he gave out a chilling, but true opinion on our situation so far.

"You're right about that. I'm sorry, truly I am. When we get to the camp, I'll have to say goodbye to you. I know that you despise them, and I do too, but you could cause all matter of trouble there and get yourself killed. For your own sake, let's make a decision. Do you want to come, head back to Freeside, or camp out nearby and wait for me to return?

"I suspected as much. I don't mind camping nearby and awaiting your return. But once you're done, and you get back, let's finish our business with House and leave immediately." He suggested, considering that New Vegas is dangerous to us now.

"Agreed. He's given us plenty enough caps to live well, and then we can choose to stay wherever we want in Vegas." I said.

With that decided and out of the way, all that was between us and The Legion's camp, Fortification Hill. We could take weeks to get there, so we would have to find something to do in-between then. Eventually, we set off, and headed northwest.

Under the crushing heat of the sun, we trekked slowly across the barren wasteland, taking a rest behind big rocks to catch our breaths, get some sleep, and cool down in the shade. It felt like there was no one around for miles; but I shouldn't expect less in an apocalyptic environment. After what seemed like hours, we finally came to a narrow passageway in the mountains, and on the other side, we could see Primm. Primm was a settlement, made in the remains of a few old casinos, but far from Vegas. I remembered the town, from the time when I was delivering packages around the wastes; before I took a bullet to the head, of course. The gap was so narrow that I had to go through without my bags, and Arcade heaved them through as well as he could. It took a while; what with them getting stuck on the jagged, sharp rocks, but finally we had both passed, and took the steep hill down to the town.

The rusty road signs of better days hung nearby, and confirmed the town's name. It was surrounded by a fence, with three entrances to get in, all covered by makeshift barricades to keep the town protected. It's one of the few settlements that actually still has a lawman. Deputy Beagle has his own shack to the side of town, and wanders around the town with his trusty six-shooter, keeping the peace in town. Sure, most criminals don't get a fair trial, but it's the best for miles.

Oddly, the streets were dead empty, nothing but the cold breeze blowing old papers and rubbish about. The street lights still worked, but an eerie sense came past me, as if I walking head first into a trap.

"I don't like the looks of this." said Arcade, smartly. "We should pass through the destroyed buildings, over in the east corner. I'll give you a leg up, and you check the area with your rifle's scope."

"That's a brilliant plan." I remarked. "Ok, move slowly and keep your head down."

I couldn't lose the feeling that something was not right, and once we had reached the rubble, Arcade lifted me up to the second floor, where I took cover, and carefully peaked my scope out of a concealed window. I put my eye to the scope, and felt sick to my stomach. I was right, bandits hid behind the walls, waiting to ambush travellers, and corpses lined the streets, their thick, gooey interiors lined the streets, the Bandits making no effort to clean them up, but push them out of view instead. By the looks of it, the surviving citizens had barricaded themselves into the "Vikki and Vance Casino" as the big sign out front put it, as many bandits stood by the door, finger on the trigger and all. I felt like dispensing wasteland justice, but I was vastly outnumbered. If I was going to do something, it wouldn't be a walk in the park.


	27. Chapter 26

**Part 26: A Vigilante's Revenge**

Taking my eye from the scope, I crawled to the edge, and whispered to Arcade.

"We were right. Bandits have taken over the town. There's about 20 of them. What do you think we should do?" I said, delivering the tough situation to him. He took a moment to think, and then came back to me.

"Ok, so at the moment, they don't know where we are. You could probably snipe a couple before you're spotted, since you have a silencer. You bought a couple grenades a long time ago. Still have them?" he asked.

I fumbled into my pockets; which was a pretty stupid idea when dealing with high explosives, but I fished them out and handed them to him.

"Alright, five grenades. We could probably take everyone out with them, we just need the right plan. Try to snipe the guards by themselves first, or you'll alert everyone. Once they know what's happening, I'll chuck a grenade in when they go for cover. Hopefully they'll all group up. If they realise where you are, just get away from the window and find a better position. You could try and flank them from the sides. I'll use my pistol if this goes to hell, and one of them gets too close to me." He said, and sneaked around to behind where most of the bandits were. His plan was genius, he must be in the wrong line of work; he's a tactician more than a doctor if anything.

Rifle back in hand, I saw about three of them by themselves, who I might be able to snipe before alarming everyone. I put my hand on the trigger, steadied myself of the rough window ledge, and fired at a guard busy relieving himself at the corner of town. Next I scoped in at a guy smoking at the other edge. His brain matter literally covered the walls, and would have been visible to anyone who turned in that direction, so I didn't have much time. The final guy was taking a nap in a makeshift bed, in the building next to me. I had a clear shot on him, and made sure the guy didn't have a good nights rest. Now, everyone I had to shoot at could clearly see another bandit, so it was up to me and Arcade working together.

I spotted two guards who had their heads lined up, and fired, causing them to domino fall onto eachother. With that, the advantage was up, as the guards grabbed for their guns, and scattered for cover. Arcade fired at a few guards who were too busy caught up with the surprise of my firing, but gave away his position in doing so. Before he left, he tossed a grenade around the corner, which blew up a pillar and crushed two guards, and ran off to a ladder at the back of the building. Surprisingly, they didn't know where I was, so while they were flanking Arcade, I fired and took out another guard. Now, they had turned on me, and I had to find a better position; but the odds were looking much better, about ten of the original twenty remained.

I crawled into a dumpster behind the guards, and had a perfect opportunity to grenade the guards, but I had given them all to Arcade. I scoped up and saw him on the side of the roof, a perfect place for a sniper rifle; what an interesting situation. He couldn't make the distance, and it exploded in front of the cover the guards were using. They scattered, and I took potshots at them from the dumpster, and took two of them out. The remaining guards dispersed in all directions; not a good situation.

I wanted to get up to where Arcade was, but it looked challenging. One of the guards fled this way, and he could be hiding anywhere for me, I moved slowly and saw him looking incredible anxious with his gun, he was shaking and muttering to himself. Over the sound of his muttering, I sneaked up on him, and made mincemeat out of his jugular vein, before dragging him out of view, and dumping his body out of sight. I climbed the ladder and met up with Arcade.

"About seven left, but they could be anywhere." I told Arcade

"I'll cover the ladder then, You scope over and look for them." He said, and we took our positions. I spotted one hiding behind cover and took him out. Another one was climbing to a higher vantage point, he fell a good flew stories and cracked his neck on the concrete, when my bullet fractured his skull.

"Shit!" Arcade screamed. And rolled towards me, as gunfire rattled around the top of the ladder. "They've found us."

"Throw a grenade at them. Their fire seems to be coming from the west side."

Arcade chucked a grenade in that direction, and heard two screams simultaneously erupt. Looking down, I could see nothing but buildings with a new coat of paint; Red.

"They heard the explosion. Quick! They're coming from the left side." He said in a high voice. I took my scope back to the left, and one of them pulled out a Rocket launcher. A fucking, Rocket Launcher. I didn't bother to take my time to aim, I headed for the ladder as fast as I possibly could.

"Get down Arcade!" I shouted, as a torrent of building fragments flew through the air, and knocked me into Arcade. He fell a story down, cracked off the side of the building, and slammed face first into the dirt path beside the ladder. I managed to get down safely, and got straight to Arcade.

"Ah, Fuck" he yelled. Looking down, he seemed ok, but his leg was hit by a chunk of shrapnel, and he must have been bruised allover."

"Shit. It's not as…bad as it…looks" he troubled himself to say. "Just grab me a bandage and fight them yourself. I'll take care of myself until you're done.

I left him, and took position by the cover the guards were using previously, and spotted the Rocket Launcher wielding bandit reloading, ready to open fire on Arcade. I scoped in and made his head explode, rather than his fearsome weapon.

Just four left, and I saw all of them cowering in a corner, peering over at their dead friends corpses. I scoped in, Arcade chucked a grenade, and shrapnel and blood splattered the surrounding area. Arcade met up with me, and we both made our way to the Vicki and Vance casino. Covered in blood, weapons on the ground, and hands up, we opened the door and saw a gunbarrel pointed in our faces.


	28. Chapter 27

**Part 27: A Heroes Reward**

Standing still, with hands up and blood pouring from Arcade's knee, we came face to face with several of the residents, all sporting their firearms. One old man seemed to stand out from the rest, and I assumed he was the leader. He motioned with his fingers, to which two of the residents walked outside and inspected the area, seeing that we had killed all of the bandits who had kept them imprisoned in the casino. After they had checked it out, they nodded to him, and they lowered their weapons. They shut the door behind us, and the old man came steadily towards us. With his wrinkled skin, dusty dungarees and two goggles fastened firmly around his neck, he seemed like an old farmer, more than a citygoer.

"Don't know what brought you to Primm, youngster, but you might want to rethink your plans. Town's gone to hell." He said in a texas drawl. "Don't know how you killed the bandits, but it's a hell of a favour to us."

To the side of me I heard a groan, and remembered that Arcade had a serious injury. His blood soaked pants were now beginning to drip onto the casino's hardwood flooring.

"Can you get my friend here some medical attention?" I asked.

"Just..get me to some medical supplies, I'm a doctor; I can fix myself." Arcade added.

A few of them took Arcade by the shoulder and carried him off into an adjoining room. The old man came back to me.

"Johnson Nash's my name. Husband to Ruby Nash. Lived in Primm going on eight years now, thick and thin." He said, giving me some background information on himself. "Came to town as a traveller once, liked it enough that I decided to settle in. Got ourselves a small pasture of crops and bighorners; enough to supply the whole town. Ran into a little trouble a couple of days back, when crazy gun toting' lunatics came to town, shooting everything in sight. Those lucky enough to survive boarded up here in the casino, and we've been holding out here ever since. Looks like you came just in time; we're almost out of food."

"Well, it looks safe enough outside. You could probably walk out of here safely." I replied.

"You sure did one hell of a job for us, and it won't go unrewarded. However, the Bison Steve hotel is probably still swarming with the bastards. You can see it, just across the road from here." He answered. "Since you've taken the ones outside, we'll support you in taking it back. You shouldn't have to go it alone after how you've helped us."

"Of course, just give me a moment with Arcade." I asked, and headed to where Arcade had been taken. I found him sitting down in the Manager's office, with various medical equipment hastily strewn around the desk. He had put a leg brace around his leg tightly, took a painkiller, and cleaned the area up with some water, as well as rubbing antibacterial soap onto it.

"How are you doing?" I asked, looking down at him. He didn't look too concerned, which was rather surprising, given what he just experienced.

"I'm Good. I can sleep it off, be good as new in a couple weeks." He replied without any effort, it was like he wasn't even concerned about it, but then again, I'm not a skilled medic. It looked serious, but he'd know how bad it really was.

"It might be, but for now you should stay here and get some rest. I'm going to head out with some of the townsfolk and get rid of the bandits still hiding in town. I'll be back to help you soon." I said

"Make sure that you come back in one piece." Arcade retorted.

With Arcade checked on, I headed straight back to Nash, who was still busy planning our assault on the Bison Steve hotel. Residents donned their haphazard leather armour, and firmly grasped their assortment of weaponry. Eventually, Nash took a stand on one of the Casino's tables and delivered the plan.

"Alright everyone. We know this town like the back of our hand. They'll be expecting us from the front door, and they almost certainly heard the commotion outside. Our best bet is to either break in through the second story windows, or take the back entrance by the kitchen. I want you to make sure you pay attention to who you're shooting at. As you all know, Deputy Beagle is still being held hostage by them, and we have no idea where they're keeping him. Now, we plan on splitting up into two groups; one for each entry point that I mentioned. We don't know how many of them there are still alive, but I will guarantee that we will send them a message about invading our town!" he shouted to the crowd that had formed in front of him. His words were powerful, and it wasn't a bad plan to be honest. With that, the group poured out and surrounded the building, before splitting into two, to flank them. I decided to join the group who were busy upstairs.

Before we broke in for good, a little further preparation was done. A few townsfolk took the time to strip the bodies of the bandits clean, to give them an edge in the coming battle. They seemed to be armed with lots of dynamite, and ten millimetre handguns, the kind that the NCR uses commonly. They were wearing prison guard armour, and it strongly seemed as if they had looted somewhere to gather all of the equipment, but I was sure I'd understand it all later; right now I had a different priority to mind. I checked my ammunition supply, and had two grenades that Arcade hadn't used, handy at my belt. This was it. I kicked the dirty glass window, which shattered all over the floor, and stormed in.


	29. Chapter 28

**Part 28: Evil's Last Stand**

Without even thinking, or knowing about the layout of the building, I quickly took cover behind the room's door, and peered around to look for bandits. It came as no surprise when I spotted two of them, racing towards the sound of broken glass. This wasn't good, and I was the only person to have broken that particular window; I was in it alone. My rifle was mostly good for picking enemies off at a distance, it was no use in such close quarters. Luckily, I had my pistol with me, and I blind fired around the corner, the thin wooden protection that the door offered me was barely enough to keep me alive, from the hailstorm of bullets that they had shot towards me. When my clip was empty, two men lay dead, walls had been coated red, and the door practically fell off it's hinges from the shots; I was getting way too lucky for my own good.

I crept slowly down the hallway, gun armed and reloaded, with an itchy trigger finger just waiting to dispense lead to some unsuspecting villainous felon. I came to a split section on the second floor, and finally saw my reinforcements. A good number of the townsfolk had joined me, and since they knew the building well, we all marched down a narrow corridor, to where the stairs were. This place had seen better days.

We passed rooms with boarded up doors, derelict rooms, covered from head to toe with spider webs, and cockroaches pouring out of every crevice; I was getting the shudders just being near this place. I kept close to the group, until they stopped at a dead end. I was confused what they were doing, until one of them crouched by it, and placed down an explosive charge. He asked for everyone to stay back and take cover, which they all did. It didn't take long for my ears to ring, as the chunk of wall was blasted into oblivion. Once the dust settled, I looked around to see a gaping hole, cracking the foundation, and covering the ground in rubble. Peering through, I could see a dark, dingy room, the remains of a once cheerful and comforting guest room. I stood aside, as floods of them passed through the door, and charged into action. I stepped through as one of the last, and heard gunfire exchanged in all directions. I made sure that the left side was safe, and darted for a nearby pillar to cover me. Two men came around the corner, and I dished out a taste of wasteland justice upon them.

The gunfire began to die down, and one of the locals signalled for me to follow him. After a couple of sharp turns, showing the bloodbath that had just ended, he led me back to the group. They had allgathered around a reinforced service door, with a small rectangularwindow in the middle, covered in dirt. A man stepped forward from the group, wiped the dirt from it, and d through. A quarter of a second later, his lifeless corpse flew backwards, with a firm bullethole through his eye, still smoking with embers from the hot lead; they were just meters away from us behind the door.

I told everyone to stand back, opened the door a fraction of an inch, and tossed a grenade through. Seconds later, the last piercing scream of a vile man filled the halls, and died down; justice for the innocent resident he had just murdered. I slowly opened the door, and the townsfolk all pointed their guns around the corner, ready to fire on anything that moved. What greeted them was the lifeless corpses of the bandits, already killed by the group that had came in through the kitchen. The left was lousy with bodies, but the right wasn't as populated, so the group split up, and headed through that way.

Already busy behind cover, Nash and the survivors of the downstairs group had taken position behind a thick wall. On the other side lay the dining room of the place, tables knocked over and used as protection for the bandits. There were two doorways in, and Nash's group were separated into two equal groups covering them, with Nash running between the sides, offering assistance and ideas. I called out to him, and he turned to see me.

"Oh great, it's about time you showed up." Nash said in a hurry. "We don't have much time. It looks like this is their last that you're here, I'll take my group to the left side, and you take the right."

Nash drew his men from the right side over to the left, and I and the group following me took the right. I took a quick squint around the corner, seeing tables knocked over, and a couple of heads poking over the top; not a good time to be tall. I had a plan, and called for Nash to deliver it.

"Got a plan?" Nash asked me.

"A rough idea, if you can pull it off. Your group open fire, and keep firing, to make sure they stay behind cover, then my group will come around the other side and flank them, while they're being suppressed." I responded, not sure if it would actually work with our fairly small group, and with no idea how many of them there were.

"That's a brilliant plan. I'll make sure my side knows what to do. Just give me the signal when you're ready." He said, and crept back to his group. Now all I had to do was tell the side I was on what the plan was, and signal Nash when I was ready. I waited for a moment that seemed right, and gave him a wave. The sound of gunfire ripped through the room, as his group suppressed the enemy into staying firmly behind cover. I didn't have a whole lot of time before they would run out of ammo, so I moved in and threw myself behind the enemies cover. It came as a surprise to them, when they turned to me and found themselves with a faceful of lead. I shouted for Nash to stop, and stood up, taking a moment to look behind me, and see the room smoking from all the brand new holes.

The floor was littered with shell casings, blood and corpses. I was beginning to feel a little a sick, considering we've covered this casino with organs and bullet holes, that would take forever to clean. With the smoke clearing, I could see from the corner of my eye, a man slouched over, in the kitchen. Getting closer, I could make out that he had his hands behind his back, and did not appearing to be moving. It didn't take long before I reached the kitchen and saw Deputy Beagle, lying face down, and making me feel as if we had failed to save him.


	30. Chapter 29

**Part 29: Pyrrhic Victory**

Standing behind me, the groups scattered out to try and get a look at what was happening. I stood in front of Deputy Beagle. A lifeless looking body before me. He was quiet, and there wasn't a drop of blood around his body. I was unsure what was in store for me, as I tugged him on the shoulder, and pushed his head forward.

"wa….Water…" came a faint gasp from his mouth. He looked awful; his face was covered with bruises and patches of dry blood. I quickly fished out my bottle of water, undid the ropes holding his arms together, and passed him the bottle; he almost drank it all in a single gulp. He wiped the drops of water off his face, handed me back the bottle, and stood up, taking a moment to readjust to standing, from being crouched so long.

"Name's Beagle. Deputy Beagle, if you prefer it that way" he said, introducing himself. "Thank god you came when you did. They hadn't given me water for days, I was about to give up hope. I don't know how you got through all of them, but I'm forever thankful"

Nash stepped forward from the group, and stood beside me.

"Beagle, if there's anyone to thank, this is your man.

The End. (This is as far as I'll ever finish this story.)


End file.
